Not the only one
by Tigerboy101
Summary: Rocket Racoon. He never understood who he was, even after Ronan's defeat, or why he was created. All this Raccoon knew was that he was the only one of his kind, and he always would be. However, things change quickly when the mysterious orb falls into the wrong hands once more. And along the way, Rocket discovers chilling pieces of his past, and even finds he is not the only one.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hey guys! This is my first official Guardians of the Galaxy Fanfic, based around Rocket Raccoon. (And yes, you read right, with a love interest for him. ;D) I hope you guys enjoy, but just remember, I am not a perfect writer, so please respect my way of writing, but all criticism is welcome, however, please no flames! Enjoy! Don't forget to share your thoughts and review!**

**Rated T for: Mild Suggestive themes, (Not explicit!) intense Sci-Fi violence, (A little more intense then actual GOTG violence.) and rude, slightly inappropriate humor.**

**Update: CHAPTER 5 has been updated!  
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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

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><p>Rocket wiped down his modified machine gun thoroughly, making sure that it wasn't jammed or had a speck of dust in it. He wanted it to be perfect when it fired, and to make sure it sounded perfect, looked perfect overall.<p>

Besides, what else was there to do, other than look at the boring stars in space? Peter wouldn't let him lay a finger on his stupid headphones just to listen a little music, and worse yet, he didn't trust Rocket with _any_ entertainment source! Just because of a few, stupid bombs he'd made out of his ship! So that left him with his last, secret source of joy, guns. Guns, guns, guns, that was all Rocket needed to make himself at home.

His weapon had been heavily modified since the battle with Ronan, since the Nova Corps soldiers were generous enough to allow him free access to their armory- to a limit of course. But Rocket didn't care. He loved the new toys he'd received at the armory- even if he was limited to what he could get, because the improvements did make his machine gun a lot better than it's ever been before. Now it had next to everything, aside from the grenade launcher, shocker, and napalm rounds that his precious weapon already had equipped. It was nearly indestructible, because of the new metal he'd coated it in, for one thing, and it even had a bigger clip magazine then before, allowing him to holding up to 120 bullets at once. The weapon even included an auto first aid dispenser, which ejects up to three first aid regenerative shots- which Rocket had never needed to use so far.

And last, but certainly not least, snuggled deep in the core of the precious machine gun, was a small, yet extremely destructible Nano Mini Nuke. All it took was one shot of this device, and an entire skyscraper would be history in no less than a second of the Nuke's impact. In other words, it desinigrated anything and everything it touched on impact. Rocket had always wondered when the right time would be for him to use it, every time his team had reached a tough breaking point in a battle, but against his own willpower- Rocket hesitated using it. That device was only for end game situations, and he knew this.

For Rocket, this weapon was heaven in Space, and he meant that whenever he said it.

After another moment of cleaning, he tossed the rag aside and gave his much favored weapon a look of satisfaction and grinned.

"_Perfect,"_ he thought to himself.

A perfect weapon was all that this Raccoon needed to make his day. It was the very thing that he depended on at all times, every day, every hour, every minute, every-

Suddenly, the door of his room slid open, interrupting the Raccoon's thoughts. Of course, who stood there was none another than the irritating human, Peter Quill. Or Star-Lord, which Rocket rarely ever called him by.

"Hey rodent come on, we have somewhere to be!" Peter snapped, for the 5th time.

Rocket scoffed and glared at him. "Can you stop calling me that word for once- whatever the heck it's supposed to mean? I'm coming!" He said with a roll of his eyes.

As if Peter wasn't already bad enough, Gamora couldn't stop mooning over him! Mooning over the Star-Lord! He spat with disgust at the thought and shivered. At least he didn't have any trouble putting up with Groot. It was as if he was the only one that he didn't have a problem with. The big tree didn't nearly cause half the trouble that the Star-Lord himself caused, and at least he of all people didn't call him names. Sure, he'd called Rocket down at least 5 times now, but that didn't mean he could yell at him to do whatever he wanted, just because they were a team now!

Rocket picked up his machine gun and propped it over his shoulder, before starting out the door. No surprise, Groot was waiting outside for him, and starting walking beside him down the hall. "I am Groot?" he asked deeply.

"Psh, I don't know, you tell me, who knows what Star-Lord wants with anything?" Rocket replied carelessly.

Even after the situation with the orb, and Groot's supposedly death, Rocket found that he wasn't completely dead, much to his relief. The Raccoon had been completely empty without the big- humanoid tree there to be there for him like he'd always been. At the time of Groot's death- Rocket changed. He realized something, something he should have understood a long time ago. Hurt. Pain. The pain of losing someone that he cared about. He'd never cried before, nor had he felt a sense of losing someone before. But after nearly a year with no Groot, no best friend there to guide him and protect his furry hide, a year of pain and depression, he'd been reborn from just a little stick- taken from Groot's forest-like corpse.

And now here he was, fighting at his side again like the good ol' days, good as new. Or at least, close enough. The only difference was that the tree humanoid wasn't as tall as before, but Rocket figured if he gave him a few more months that Groot would be back to normal in no time.

After a short walk down the hall, they met up with Peter and the other guardians at the intersection to the metal hallway. Peter had his arms crossed, which was a gesture that clearly demanded attention, and the other guardians were waiting patiently for him to speak. "Well, what do you want Quill?" Rocket asked viciously the minute he arrived there.

Peter sighed with frustration at his tone of voice and rolled his eyes. "If you would stop talking, then maybe I would tell you," he insisted sharply.

Rocket then became quiet, thought he was reluctant to do so.

"Alright, you guys are probably wondering why I've gathered you here today. And I'll get to that in a moment, but I just want you guys to all promise that you won't have a major freak out over it. I have been thinking about this for a few days- not to mention, doing a little talking with a certain person, and I have finally made my decision on it," Peter explained. He looked over to Gomora. "Only Gomora and I are aware of this new decision," he added.

Rocket immediately took a hasty step forward. "Whoa, whoa there Star-boy," he interrupted.

Quill rolled his eyes in frustration. "Star-Lord!" He corrected him in annoyance.

Rocket scoffed again. "Whatever. I'm not promising anything to you, until I get an answer as to just what you made us come down here for," he insisted with a glare, pointing his paw down to the ground.

Peter returned the gesture briefly, before finally cutting to the chase. "We have a new guardian joining us here today."

This sent uproar of commotion from the other guardians, even Groot and Rocket. "New Guardian? What is this new addition like?" Drax asked deeply. "I am Groot," the old tree said again, his tone telling the team that he was asking a question. Rocket finally ended the commotion.

"Wait, wait just a minute here, shut up both of you!" He insisted loudly, silencing Groot and Drax. Rocket turned his gaze to the Star-Lord. "You're telling me that we're getting a new guardian, yet we all agreed after that little situation with the orb, that we don't accept recruits?" He asked in disbelief, lowering his rifle from his furry back.

"Yeah rodent, we had a change of the rules, so what? You gotta problem with a newbie? Because I think you two would get along rather nicely," Peter insisted, with a small, mysterious smile, as if he were hiding something that Rocket didn't know about.

The smile had made Rocket wonder what it was that Peter had in store for him. Did he know that the newbie would torment Rocket? Or did he know that they just wouldn't get along? Either way, it made him all the more suspicious.

"Maybe I do have a problem with a new recruit, why do you care?" Rocket demanded, putting his paws up in protest. "And who is this new guy anyway?" he pressed.

"Not guy," Peter corrected with another smile, as he turned to face the automatic metal doorway behind him. "You can come out now Sam!" He shouted.

Turning back to the Guardians, who crowded near the doorway anxiously, Peter said, "Guys, meet the newest member of the Guardians."

And what Rocket saw next, was nothing close to what he had thought the recruit would be. The recruit was not a strong, tall, maniac like Drax. The recruit was not an enormous tree humanoid like Groot, and it definitely wasn't an irritating human like Peter. Nor was it a cunning assassin like Gomora, with green, slick skin.

The automatic door opened, to reveal a small, furry figure walking through it, with a sniper rifle propped up on its back. It's small but bushy, black, furry tail swished across the ground, almost in a rhythm like movement. A combat vest was wrapped around its chest, and around its back, just like Rocket's did. A spare grenade hung to the lower side of the vest, and so did a spare pack of sniper rounds.

What Rocket was seeing at this moment, was a Raccoon. And he could tell just by looking at it, that the Raccoon was female.


	2. The Newbie

**Hehe, I know you probably all weren't expecting me to post another chapter so early, but sense I only posted this story a few hours ago, and I already have 4 follows and 2 favs, I was flattered, really. So flattered in fact, that I had to post another chapter for all you lovers out there! (Special shout out my first reviewer! Glad you like the story already!) ;) **

**As usual, please enjoy the story, and don't hesitate to share your thoughts and smash that review button!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

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><p><em>Dang, that is one hot beast!<em> That was one of the first things that Rocket couldn't help thinking about her. The Raccoon made her way to the group, and obviously, the rest of the guardians were just as surprised as Rocket was that it was yet ANOTHER, raccoon. Rocket couldn't take his eyes off of her, and it was all he could do to stop himself from drooling a little. He had never been the type to be interested in someone at all, but when it came to someone that looked just like him, how could he say no to that?

Peter walked beside the rest of the group, and all except Rocket backed away. "Guys, this is Sam," he introduced, "our new, Guardian of the Galaxy."

Rocket couldn't help chuckling a little at the sound of her name.

Immediately, she turned her furry head in his direction, her icy blue gaze staring into his. "What are you chuckling at?" She snapped right away.

Rocket almost flinched at the sudden tone of her voice, but tried to keep his cool. "Sam? Isn't that a name for a guy?" He said with a small smirk. Of course, being Rocket Raccoon, he couldn't help speaking his mind.

She glared at him briefly, but her expression turned back to normal a moment later. "Hmm, funny. You'd better be careful, swinging smart alek comments like that around me though," she warned, and Rocket couldn't help hiding a chuckle at this. He was starting to like her already.

Peter and Drax both exchanged silent smirks at each other, but they failed to hide them, and Rocket and Sam both turned to them, glaring in unison.

"We'll leave you two alone to get to know each other," Peter decided, as he and the rest of the team walked away.

He gave Rocket a small wink and smirked again, earning a tongue stick out from Rocket in reply. After Rocket was sure that they were gone, he turned his attention back to the new guardian, anxious about what to say next.

"What was that guy's problem?" Sam asked firmly.

Rocket shrugged. "I don't know, you tell me. The guy's practically an idiot!" he replied in a harsh tone of voice, baring his teeth grudgingly. "I have to deal with the kid's whining all day, every day, and let me tell you, it's not fun!"

He was hoping to get some kind of positive response from her, but all she did was nod in confirmation. "So Chuckles, you mind telling me your name, so that way I don't have to keep calling you that?" Sam asked, holding her sniper in her hands casually now.

"Rocket," he told her simply and bluntly. That was when he noticed her sniper rifle she held. "Nice gun by the way," he complimented.

"Thanks," she replied with a simple nod of acknowledgement. "And that's an- interesting name you have their," she pointed out. "Where'd you get that kind of name?"

Rocket felt himself tense up at the question. Of course, he didn't like to talk about where he came from, because of course, it all lead to the one obvious answer: The lab. That's as far as Rocket knew about his past about where he came from, and there was nothing that he could logically point out that could explain why he was a talking raccoon, despite her being one as well. "Birth name," he replied bluntly and swiftly, turning his head away in shame briefly, "What can I say?"

Sam scoffed. "Not much of a talker are you?" She asked with a rude roll of her eyes.

"Maybe I'm not," Rocket replied firmly, starting to feel himself heat up. He was starting to get annoyed and slightly angry at her one-way attitude. Couldn't she see that he liked her? But now, Rocket wasn't so sure about that anymore.

"Maybe you shouldn't keep giving me blunt answers then," she responded, her voice starting to get stern.

"Maybe I don't feel like it," Rocket retorted.

"Maybe you should."

"Maybe I don't think I should!"

"Then maybe I just don't care!" She snapped at once, starting to storm off.

Five sentences ago, Rocket knew that it would end this way. But man, he had to admit, she did have quite a short fuse for being a woman! Not even his fuse was that short!

He couldn't help letting out a smirk and face-palming himself playfully. _Alright Sam, I can play that game with you._

After a moment later, Rocket decided that he should return to Peter and the others. But he knew that Sam wouldn't be happy to see him when he did come out. But it was her that had brought up where he was from in the first place! Being a raccoon herself, didn't she know any better than to ask Rocket about that? Clearly, she had to know the answer, didn't she? There was only place that Rocket knew of that Raccoons come from, and that was a lab. But he wasn't proud of it, being considered a test rat and all now. If they were going to get along at all, she had to understand that at least.

Rocket made his way back through the double metal doorway s, to find the group waiting right outside the doors.

Peter was the first one to notice his presence again, and smiled smugly, as if to tauntingly say, "How'd your first date go?" Rocket could literally read the words right off of his lips.

At that moment, he knew right then and there why Peter had been so hesitant about the subject concerning the recruit: He- well, _she_ is this case, was a Raccoon, just like Rocket. Quill owed him a good explanation for his actions at this point, and fast.

"I see you two bonded pretty well back there," Peter said, the sarcasm echoing clearly in his voice, as he looked back at Sam, whom sat on a small, metal crate.

Rocket glanced in her direction as well, only to find her abruptly break off eye contact with him.

Drax looked over to him, then back at the female raccoon, but didn't speak, keeping his thoughts concealed. Groot, however, leaned in behind Rocket to speak. "I am Groot," he said, smiling lightly.

Rocket frowned at him and made a disgusted shooing motion with his paw in reply. "Ugh, I do not! Groot, how would you even know about that kind of stuff? You're just a big, fat tree!" He insisted.

Groot whimpered at the insult a little and turned his head away in hurt.

Quill's expression turned puzzled at Groot's same sentence again, and he glanced back at Rocket as if expecting him to answer. "What'd he say?" He asked curiously.

Rocket turned his head away. "Nothing," he replied bluntly in annoyance.

Star-Lord didn't look convinced, but he shrugged in acknowledgment. "Whatever you say Rocket," he replied in uncertainty. Peter glanced to Sam. "I'll be back to show you to your quarters, but for now, you can take a look around, _but- _just please, don't touch _anything_!" He begged, clearly referring to the time Rocket had used pieces of his ship to create bombs. He hopped Sam wasn't thinking about doing the same thing.

But before Star-Lord could exit the hall, Rocket spoke up. "Hey, hold up Quill!" he said aloud.

Quill sighed with annoyance and turned his head hesitantly back to the Raccoon. "What now, Rocket?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute? Privately, please?" Rocket asked, trying to stop himself from exploding.

Quill found Rocket's request to be odd, but nodded for him to enter. After all, it's not like anything Rocket said was that important, right?

They both entered the cockpit of Peter's ship, and Star-Lord locked the hatch as they both made it inside. The space-like atmosphere blackened the outside of ship, the only source of light being bright stars many miles away.

Star-Lord sat down in the pilot's, main seat, and glanced back to Rocket. "I already know what you're going to say, Rocket, you don't have to go all Kamikaze Raccoon on me, so just let me explain-"

"Wait, Kami what?" Rocket interrupted in confusion.

Peter rolled his eyes. "Whatever, that's not the point, rodent!"

"You're right idiot, that's not the point!" Rocket restated firmly, feeling his voice start to rise. "The point, is that you brought another gray and black stripped- whatever you Humans call us, onto this ship, without telling me! I mean, I'll give you points for bringing a dang hot one, but still, Quill, really? You know how I feel about newbies!" Rocket insisted.

"What's so bad about having another Raccoon like you on this ship?" Peter scoffed. "I would've thought you two would get along pretty well, considering your both hotheads."

Rocket's eyebrows rose. "What did you just call me, Star-Boy?" he challenged.

Peter sighed in distress. "IT'S STAR-LORD-"

"Whatever!" Rocket shouted above him. "Listen Quill, you owe me a darn good explanation for why she's here, I mean it!" He demanded. "I mean, come on man! It's bad enough having a crazy maniac and an insane assassin sleeping only a few rooms across from you, but Sam? She's another story."

Peter shook his head in disapproval and sighed again. "Look, Rocket. I brought Sam along, because I wanted you to be able to bond with someone like you," Peter explained.

The gun totting Raccoon looked at him puzzled. "Bond with someone? The heck Quill, I have Groot! I don't need some, hot headed- well, hot headed and attractive babe, following me around, yelling at me every second she gets a chance!" Rocket insisted in disbelief.

Peter chuckled. "Rocket, you only use Groot to hide behind for cover. Besides, he's just a big tree! You need someone like you around, someone that you can actually connect with, you know? And you're judging her too quick rodent. How do you know if she's really that bad? She's practically a mirrored image of you!"

Rocket growled a little and looked him in the eye, feeling incredibly offended. "Don't you dare talk about Groot that way! For your information, Mr. Star-Lord, I do not use him for cover, I use him as help! And second of all, Sam and I are NOTHING, alike! We have next to nothing in common! Use your head Quill, she doesn't belong here," he spat.

"Really?" Peter's voice echoed in amusement. "Because I'm pretty sure you guys seem to have the same personality type and interests….."

Rocket ignored him and looked away.

At this, Quill smiled smugly and chuckled again. "Rocket, I have to say, I'm disappointed in you. I would've thought you'd be interested in someone like you, but you don't seem to be into the idea."

"I'm not," Rocket snapped, "and honestly Peter, working with her is the last thing I'd rather do, I mean that."

Rocket had to admit, he was interested in Sam, considering that she was a Raccoon too, but she just wasn't his type.

Smiling falsely, Peter said, "Well guess what? Lucky day for you, because I am pairing you two together."

Rocket's fur prickled in alarm and his jaw dropped to the floor. "What?!"

"Yep," Peter continued in a cheerful tone, "You two get to work together during any job we do, from this point on. Doesn't that sound great?"

"No."

"Would it be better if I paired you up with Drax?"

"No."

"How about Gamora?"

"Oh, heck to the no!"

"What if I got you a new gun, new and improved? Would you work with her then?" Peter teased him.

"No way."

"Well guess what? You still get paired up with her."

Rocket groaned with anger and kicked the seat across from him. "I hate you so much…." He muttered under gritted teeth.

Peter sighed. "I know. But just please Rocket, try to work with her at least once? If things don't work out during the first few jobs, I'll consider resigning her," he begged.

Rocket lowered his head in discouragement.

"Come on man, just once? One try, one try Rocket, just one job I swear."

Rocket kept his head lowered a moment. Then, against the odds, his head hesitantly rose again. "_One job?" _He restated seriously.

Peter nodded eagerly. "One job," he confirmed.

The Raccoon cocked in head to the side, and winced almost in a painful manner, as if trying to consider his options. "I'll do it," he blurted out finally.

Star-Lord smiled and patted his head lightly. "That's what I like to hear. Trust me Rocket, I know you're going to like her!" He insisted.

The Raccoon sighed in dismay. "Whatever you say Quill," he said sarcastically, before turning to walk away. _Yeah right, _Rocket thought to himself.

"Wait, hey!"

Rocket glanced back at Peter. "What now?"

"Mine showing Sam to her quarters while you're at it?" Peter offered.

Rocket didn't even try to protest at this point. "Fine, whatever man, can I go now?" He asked miserably. "You've ruined my life enough already…"

"Yeah, go ahead, but don't forget….." Peter nodded, but not before he clicked his tongue and made a gun motion with his finger, putting his thumb down and winking at him in a sly kind of way. "Don't forget to try your luck with her."

Rocket rolled his eyes again and started down the ladder, ignoring what he just saw. "Yeah right," Rocket muttered to himself, as he descended back into the lower deck of the ship, "some day I'm having. Yes sir, some day Rocket Raccoon is having."


	3. Forgiveness

**A/N Hope you enjoy, don't forget to review! :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

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><p>Rocket walked down the hallway casually, still stuck in his thoughts and muttering insults about Peter to himself.<p>

After experiencing Groot's death, Rocket had been careful how far he went on the insulting part, and tried his best to care about them, since he now knew that anything could happen to the ones he cared about. Groot wasn't invincible, and neither were the rest of the team.

"Oh, boo, hoo, my wife and child are dead!" Those were the very cold-hearted words that Rocket had dared to say to Drax, back before Groot had ever died.

And it wasn't until Groot had died, that Rocket understood how Drax felt, even if it wasn't a family member that he'd lost- much less two family members. Groot had been the closest thing to family that Rocket had ever had. Now- as much as the Raccoon hated to admit it at times, all five of these insane idiots were family to him too, in a way. They cared about him, they paid for the food and supplies most of the time, and they even watched his back when the going got tough. Even if they did insult each other or get on each others nerves, they still showed that they cared about him. He'd always thought about going back to the good ol' days with Groot whenever Peter or someone else made him angry, but every time Rocket thought about it, he found himself not being able to do it. Those were the points that Rocket realized how important it was to work together. The Guardians had shown him this.

The questions remained however: How would he ever learn to work with Sam? She practically had a bigger temper then he did, and Rocket knew for fact that he had a big one! Not only that, but her little one way attitude? For Rocket, that was just too much for him to deal with. Maybe he had been a little too harsh about that when he had first talked to her, but he still found himself wondering if she would stay that way forever. Hot headed, but attractive. What a Wild Card.

_I'll figure it out. _Rocket decided. After all, how hard could it be to work with someone that was just like him?

Rocket approached the doorway ahead of him, and stopped right before it could automatically open. He took a deep breath, and licked his right paw a little, before smoothing the front of his forehead with it, looking around to make sure no one saw him doing that. _Come on Rocket, you got this man._ He thought determinedly, before stepping through the door.

This time, he didn't see anyone inside the hallway intersection, except for Groot, and Sam, much to his satisfaction.

"I am Groot," Groot said to Sam with a smile.

"Look, I told you already you big, dumb, stupid tree, I already heard you three sentences ago! I am Groot, I am Groot, I know already!" Sam replied in a frustrated tone.

"I am Groot!" Groot said with a frown, while scratching his bark-like head in wonder, as if not understanding why she couldn't figure out what he was saying.

Sam sighed a little and closed her blue eyes, clearly trying to cool herself down. "Okay, is there, ANYTHING else you can say other than, "I am Groot?" She asked in annoyance.

Groot smiled and nodded in confirmation. "I am Groot."

The female Raccoon sighed with frustration and rolled her eyes. "Great, nice talking to you too partner… idiot….." she muttered to herself quietly.

Rocket immediately approached her after their "charming" conversation.

"Hey! Don't talk to Groot that way! He is not stupid, and he is not dumb for your information!" Rocket told her firmly, making Sam scowl at him.

"Oh really?" Sam said sarcastically, "then why does your- pet, keep saying, "I am Groot, over and over again?"

Rocket rolled his eyes and facepalmed. Why did every single person in the entire galaxy always ask him that question whenever Groot talked?

"Because that's what his vocabulary is limited to, genius," Rocket retorted, "I. Am. Groot. Those three key words. And he is not my pet, he's my best pal! So don't be talking about my friend that way, I mean it," Rocket finished firmly.

Sam scoffed in offense and shook her head. "Wow, why am I not surprised that you of all people are best friends with a tree?"

Groot frowned. "I am Groot!" he protested firmly, crossing his tree limbs across his chest.

"Yeah, we got that topic covered about 20 sentences ago Einstein," Sam remarked sarcastically.

Rocket glared at her, but then his expression suddenly turned grave as he met Groot's gaze. "Sorry Groot, she's right on that one man," he admitted.

Sam propped her sniper on her shoulder like Rocket had done with his rifle.

"Alright, enough of that. I highly doubt you're here to annoy and tick me off, so just cut to the chase. What did you want Chuckles?" Sam asked.

Rocket fake chuckled again, just to live up to his new nickname of course.

"I was gonna show you where your room was," he replied, sounding quieter this time.

Sam rose an eyebrow in suspicion, as if expecting him to joke or insult her or something. But she just shrugged in reply, after not hearing him speak. "Well? Are you going to show me to that room, or are we going to just sit around here arguing?" she urged.

Rocket gestured for her to follow him, awkwardly not making eye contact with her for unknown reasons.

They walked down the metal hallway, shortly after passing by Peter's little hangout room, where his radio was still playing the Capital's music and news. And where Peter kept his….. secret little wrapped gift, which Rocket had yet to find out what it was.

Sam glanced at the room as they walked by. "Does he always listen to that same, boring station?" she asked in annoyance.

Rocket scoffed in agreement at her comment and nodded. "Yep, that's pretty much all that kid listens to every day when we're on the job, traveling around places and doing stuff," he remarked, "and just to give you a heads up, Peter doesn't want anyone touching his stuff in that fileing cabinet in there. Don't ask me why though, I don't know what's going on in that kid's mind," Rocket quickly added.

They turned in another intersection in the small ship, which led to three different directions, where Rocket halted them both before they could walk ahead to the Living Quarters.

"This intersection leads to several small parts of the ship, which are pretty easy to find, unless you're a complete idiot," Rocket continued. He looked to the left doorway, which lied just a few feet away from him. "This is the Generator room's door. You don't need to come in here at all, unless you somehow plan to fix the generator or engines themselves, which is technically either my job, or Quill's," Rocket stated firmly, "so unless your good with that electronic stuff, I'd say that you probably want to stay out of there until Quill says otherwise.

Sam nodded simply and bit her lip a little. "What about that door over there?" she gestured to the door on the right.

"That leads to the storage room," Rocket explained calmly, "that's just where we store crap that we really don't need, or just want to use for later. Quill would rather we not go messing around through it, but I could care less what Star-Boy has to say, so if you want to grab something from it, go on ahead," he urged.

Sam nodded again.

Rocket looked ahead at the doorway straight across from him, and assured her forward. "And this place…." The Automatic doorway opened, to reveal a small, square-like room. "Is the best place of all," Rocket said, "the Living Quarters. Or, as I like to call it, Home, sweat home." He chuckled again, this time, for real, and Sam nodded in reply, hiding what Rocket assumed to be a smile.

"So, where's my room at?" Sam asked in curiosity, her expression suddenly serious again.

Rocket looked around, until his eyes met with the room in the far right corner of the Living Quarters. "Right there," he pointed with his paw.

Sam nodded in reply again, and this time, she just barley meet Rocket's eyes before he'd broken off visual contact. "So where's your room at, Mr. Chuckles?" she asked, making them both laugh nervously.

Rocket sighed in amusement and looked over his shoulder. "Right over there. The room closest to the door to be exact. To be honest, it's the best place I've ever been to in my life," he added, making Sam smile and chuckle a little. He found himself doing the same, much to his surprise, and just like that, their eyes finally met.

He hadn't even realized until now, that he hadn't talked firmly or angrily to anyone during that whole walk with Sam. He hadn't spoken with annoyance, anger, or resent, and he didn't even have any angered thoughts about anyone. It was as if whenever he was with Sam, he had no reason to be angry anymore, despite their quarrels in the past. His felt a warm, comforting feeling wash over him, just by looking at her, and at that moment, the gun totting Raccoon didn't feel any anger towards her anymore. Rocket felt an uneasy feeling suddenly tug at his stomach, something he hadn't feel before. Regret. What he'd said at the beginning to Sam wasn't right, and against all odds, Rocket Raccoon actually felt the need to apologize for once.

Rocket forced himself to try and smile a little. "Hey… uh, look, I suck at this kind of thing, so I'll just say it. I'm sorry about what I said before. You know about going on the offense about where I came from. I was acting like a complete jerk, and I get that now. So… I hope were cool now," Rocket finished, shifting his feet awkwardly, and smiling weakly.

Sam smiled a little, much to his satisfaction, and nodded. "It's alright, I get it. I know what it's like to be- you know, born from somewhere you didn't want to come from. So for what it's worth, I'm sorry too, Chu- I mean Rocket," she added, making them both smirk.

Rocket smiled too, and nodded. "Thanks."

They both stayed awkwardly silent, until one of them could finally find the words to speak.

"So…. see you tomorrow then I guess?" Rocket said.

"I guess," Sam replied in a matter of fact type of way, letting her sniper rest freely again, as she started to walk away. "See you around, Rocket."

As she disappeared into the doorway of her room, Rocket smiled with satisfaction and disappeared into his own.

Not only had he achieved his goal, but he'd also gotten on Sam's good side, easier then he'd thought it would have taken. And maybe…. Just maybe, he did like her more than regularly "liking someone."

Because tonight, Rocket Raccoon was in love.

* * *

><p><strong>The Next Day Later...<strong>

* * *

><p>"Rocket, hey Rocket, wake up, quick! Rocket, hey, come on Chuckles!"<p>

Rocket shot up from his sleep, from the safety of his covers, to find Sam standing at the foot of his bed, all geared up for combat. He rubbed his eyes briefly and yawned, before realizing three alarming things:

He had no shirt on, he was wearing Raccoon-sized boxers, and worse yet, the opposite gender, was standing right at the foot of his bed.

He yelped with alarm and cussed under his breath, sinking back underneath the sheets briefly.

"Dang it Sam! Do you ever knock before you go barging into someone's room, when they are wearing next to no clothes?" Rocket covered his mouth at the last part in embarrassment, not meaning to have said that last bit.

Sam just stared at him blankly and widened her eyelashes a little in surprise. "You're- not wearing any clothes?" she looked as if she were on the verge of bursting out laughing.

Rocket facepalmed in dismay. "NO! I didn't say that, I said- I'm only wearing- argh!- forget it, what did you want this early in the day, that is so important to interrupt my beauty sleep?" He rubbed his eyes again, and grabbed his combat vest from under his human-sized mattress.

Sam's expression changed back to normal at this. "It's dead important Rocket, something's come up, and Quill needs all 6 of us at the Cockpit immediately," she informed him.

"Another job?" Rocket asked firmly.

"No," Sam replied, "something about an orb being stolen at the Capital-"

"On my way," Rocket interrupted, "just give me a second, and I'll be right up."

Indeed, the job was quite important. More important and serious then Sam could have ever imagined, for the orb that Roanan the Accusar once wanted, had been stolen once again.


	4. Xandar down

**A/N Alright. I just wanted to say that I am happy that everyone is enjoying the story so much, and I am greatly overjoyed by the people who have reviewed in the first three days of the story's plublishing, and all of the favs and follows I already have. Thank you all so much, and please enjoy the rest of the story! As always, R&R, and enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

* * *

><p>Blood rushed to the soldier's throat. The throbbing pain of the gloved hand gripping him squeezed his throat even harder, making him wheeze painfully.<p>

The pain screamed of another Nova Corps Soldier being executed rang in his ears, as the sound of a Laser Pistol made him flinch with fear. Other, different looking soldiers, wearing black armor and wielding Laser Rifles and Bullet weapons crowded around their leader patiently. Two other Nova Corp men were knelt in captivity, binded with metal Auto-Cuffs, and their heads bleeding from countless weapon bashes. Faint gunfire echoed down the glass-like hallways, followed by the sound of Laser Rifles and pained screams.

The man holding him squeezed the soldier's throat even tighter with anger. "I won't ask you again, where is the orb?" He demanded, his voice sounding even more intimidating and menacing with the mask that he wore.

The man coughed and spat blood in his face. "You'll never find it, Assassin… You're a disgrace to Xandar- and you will never rule it- you- will fall- just like Ronan did," he wheezed angrily.

At that, the Assassin leader cracked his head to the side viciously, breaking his neck in one sudden snap, then tossed him right in front of the two remaining Nova Corp Soldiers.

"Well shall about that, foolish Xandarian," he said smugly. The man turned his head to his helpless opponents on the ground.

"We don't know where the orb is, we swear!" One of the men cried out. "Don't ki-"

"Kill them," the Assassin ordered with a wave of his hand.

"No, wait please, NO-!"

One shot of a Laser Pistol silenced his pained pleas, followed by a second shot, which ended his partner just as fast.

The Assassin leader looked over to his men, then started walking down the hall. "Search every last corner and square inch of this base. I want that orb found, NOW!" He roared. Looking back down at his deceased opponents, he added, "We are expecting special…. Visitors, in the next few hours shortly."

* * *

><p>The Cockpit of Peter's ship opened to a stop, and he and his allies leapt out to an alarming scene.<p>

Nova Corp soldiers were running left and right, trying to contain stunned and panicked citizens, while other armed ones rushed ahead towards the Main Compound. Medical ships were propped at landing pads- and swarms of doctors were presently trying to aid wounded and injured soldiers near them. A few occupied stretcher squads raced by the Guardians, nosily making their way through the streets. One soldier helped carry his wounded partner- which had suffered what looked to be a laser injury, over to the medical ship. Lines of soldiers helped form a blockade around the Main Compound, up ahead on the road. The Compound, which had protected and contained the orb.

Star-Lord's expression turned grave at this. "Uh…... this isn't looking too good right now guys."

Gamora glanced at him. "You think?" she asked, as if Peter had just stated the obvious.

They made their way up the road, only to be immediately approached by a Xandarian soldier. He wore the same combat gear that most Nova Crop soldiers wore, with the same, average helmet and sidearm. The only difference that Peter could see in him out of the rest of the soldiers, was that he had a Captain's ranking badge on his left shoulder, and a blue emblem of the Capital. The Captain clutched a High-Powered Pistol in his left hand, while his right hand held on to his hip, which throbbed painfully from some kind of bloody injury- Peter didn't want to know what it was.

"Y- you! You're Mr. Quill, is that right? Leader of the Guardians of the Gal-"

"Yes sir," Peter interrupted hastily, "but call me Star-Lord if you want. What happened here Captain?"

The Captain winced painfully, and gestured for them with a wave of his weapon hand to follow him.  
>"An attack happened. We don't know how they managed to get into the Compound so fast, and our details are limited at the moment as to what just happened here," he explained.<p>

"I heard the orb was stolen, is that true?" Quill asked seriously, before he could continue talking.

The Captain didn't shake his head, but nodded slightly. "We don't know for sure, but we think so," he replied bluntly, coughing roughly after responding. "All I know, is that some genius managed to avoid our scanners and sensory array equipment- the Capital's equipment, smuggle about two hundred and fifty soldiers into our Compound, and E.M.P our emergency lighting and automatic doors, before we could even react to what was happening. That is the kind of opponent that we are facing right now," he finished.

"So you are saying," Gomora started, "that because of these conditions, your men are unable to proceed in the counterattack, is that correct?"

"Yes ma'am," the Captain replied, sounding slightly impressed, "any men that we do attempt to send in to take the Compound back either come back heavily injured…." He looked Star-Lord dead in the eye. "Or they don't come back at all."

Peter scratched his head a moment, and his face looked solemn with seriousness this time. Of course, when it came to the orb that could destroy the entire Galaxy, the orb that could destroy Earth, he had to listen to every detail.

"Did Denarian Dey or the other staff make it out alive?" Peter asked.

Drax scoffed behind him. "The man who wouldn't let me rip out people's spines….."

"Or let me take things that I want more than the person that owns them….." Rocket added quietly, making Gamora nudge him sharply in the side.

"Luckily, our Leader was not present in the Compound at the time of the attack, so yes, a few staff did survive. Unfortunately, we lost contact with Dey's heartbeat beacon, just a half an hour ago, so he chances of being alive are slim I am afraid. As for the remaining soldiers and staff inside the compound, only 8 heart beat beacons are still active. The enemy did seem to have hostages before, but their beacons have gone dark sense then," the Captain explained, as they reached the entrance to the Compound.

He turned back around to face Peter briefly, and stared dead on at him. "If you can bring those men back alive, I will see to it that you are not only rewarded for restoring the Compound- but also for bringing the eight of them back to their families breathing," he said firmly. "Can I trust you all to take that Compound back for us, more importantly?"

At that, Peter stepped forward, and drew one of his laser pistols. He turned on his metal mask, and looked the man in the eye. The other Guardians from behind him stepped up and stood at his sides.

"Buddy, we're the Guardians of the Galaxy. You can more than count on us to take out two hundred and fifty soldiers, trust me when I say that."

However, Rocket had to interrupt this touching scene with another one of his own.

"Whoa, wait a minute here! What kind of reward are we talking about exactly? You do realize that you're asking us to risk, _our booties, _for eight guys, and mow through two hundred and fifty other bad guys. So what's the reward gonna be?" He asked aloud.

Peter glared at him again, as if to say, "Are you kidding me?"

The Captain sighed in annoyance, and clear frustration and shook his head in disapproval. "You guys are still just a bunch of mercenaries at heart aren't you?" he remarked, as a hint of amusement appeared in his voice, gazing down at Rocket. "Fine then. All I can say is that either units or a free armory choice will be the reward."

Rocket puts his hands together in satisfaction. "We'll take the free ar-"

Peter covered his mouth with his free gloved hand, muffling the words. Sam smirked at this from behind.

"What he meet to say, was that no reward will be necessary," Peter said with his best smile. Rocket tried his best to protest and talk, but Peter wouldn't take his hand off his mouth.

"Will do then," The Captain said with a nod of farewell, "keep safe, and good luck to you Star-Lord!" And with that, he raced back down the road towards the line of troops at the entrance to the Compound.

Once he was gone, Rocket finally managed to escape his grip.

"What the heck Quill?!" he asked angrily, rubbing his grabbed mouth with his little paw. "We could've gotten something out of rescuing those guys, but no. Instead, you decide to be the perfect little goody two shoes that you've always wanted to be, and take, NO reward!" he protested.

"Rocket, those men risked their lives to defend this place man!" Peter retorted, "and what we are doing right now, is something a heck of a lot more important than getting a reward! This isn't a bounty hunt, rodent! I mean, if it didn't have to do with the orb, maybe I would take a reward, but this is serious junk!"

"Serious?" Rocket scoffed. "You've never taken anything seriously, let alone, taken a job without a reward! So don't you dare try to talk to me about-"

"Guys!" Gamora protested. "Is this really the appropriate time to be arguing? The orb is at risk of being taken- not to mention the fact that the whole Galaxy is at risk, and yet you two absurd fools, are acting like a couple of preposterous idiots," She said firmly.

Rocket opened his mouth to talk, but Sam nudged him from behind and shook her head, clearly trying to say that it isn't worth it. Peter looked ready to argue more, but he simply sighed with frustration. "We are not done with this conversation," Peter stated to Rocket firmly, before walking off towards the building.

Rocket scoffed arrogantly as Star-Lord walked away. "Idiot," he growled through gritted teeth, before hesitantly following him again.

The Guardians all stopped at the entrance to the Compound, and stood together a moment later. Rocket loaded up his Machine Gun, and Sam drew her Sniper Rifle, while Drax and Gamora readied themselves for battle as well. Instead of just using a sword like she normally did, Gamora also used a hold out Laser Pistol, just in case ranged weapons were ever to be a necessity. Peter deployed his battle mask, and placed his orange headphones onto his head. But right before his finger could reach the "play" button on the tape in his secure pocket, Drax spoke up.

"So…. I wonder Quill. Do you happen to have plan?"

Peter smiled from inside his mask, and replied, "I'm glad you asked that question Drax. Because I do have a plan."

At this, Rocket facepalmed in dismay. "Oh, no…. not one of his plans again."

"What percentage of that plan do you happen to have, Star-Lord?" Drax asked with a small, amused grin, clearly recalling the last time he'd asked that.

"Twelve percent hopefully?" Rocket asked in annoyance.

Peter shook his head, and smiled again. "Actually, make that ninety-nine percent of a plan."

* * *

><p>"Commander, we have secured the Main Entrance as ordered. No one has currently tried to access this area in the past few hours," a soldier said.<p>

Pause.

"Yeah, we're pretty sure we can hold this position, do not fear Commander."

Another Pause.

"Yes sir, right away sir-"

Suddenly, two twin laser bolts penetrated his chest, making him fall flat on his back, right as the skylight above him shattered. The glass showered over the remaining group of soldiers, who struggled to aim their weapons without risking the glass hitting their visor. And out of the air, came Star-Lord. He landed on the stairwell feet first in a crouching position, and shot down the three soldiers that stood in his path with both of his Laser Pistols. "Any time now Rocket!" Peter shouted through his comlink, before going back to combat with the other soldiers.

At this, the southern wall of the first floor burst into flames, sending debris and cables that had once held the wall together into the air. Soldiers that were near the wall hit the ground with a start, and tried to get up from the wreckage. They readied their weapons in alarm, only to find an enormous, eight foot tall tree appear out of the smoke. The five of them staggered back in fear, as the menacing behemoth stomped forward, with an armed Raccoon atop of his head.

Then, the tree uttered three simple words that would seal their fate.

"I. AM. GROOT!"

The men immediately tried to step back in attempt to dodge the tree's menacing gesture, but Groot bellowed forward and smacked them all to the side with one blow of his root-like arm, killing all five of them.

"Yeah Groot, you teach those suckers to mess with us!" Rocket laughed menacingly, as he readied his precious Machine Gun. "And I call myself a professional….."

A heavily armed soldier and his partner raced outside to meet their new opponents, only to be sniped in the head by an unknown opponent. His partner looked around in alarm for a moment, trying to locate the unseen threat, but he meet the same fate as his ally, and two bullets penetrated his chest, putting him on the ground.

Rocket grinned at this and tuned his com a little. "Dang girl, you shoot better than I ever would in a million years!" he praised, "thanks for the assist."

"Don't mention it, Chuckles," was the sly reply he earned, just as another soldier had been sniped.

Suddenly, a crowd of enemy soldiers burst out from the hallway across from him. Once they had noticed their two opponents, they all took cover behind benches, plants, advertisement stands, anything that would keep them safe from bullets. Rocket counted about twenty of them.

"Rocket, that looks like a lot of guys to deal with," Sam remarked through his comlink, "Want me to give you a hand there?"

Rocket smirked and loaded a fresh clip into his machine gun, and cocked back the trigger. "No thanks, I got this one." He pointed his rifle barrel at the group of them, and pulled the trigger.

Chaos immediately overcame the many soldiers that had taken cover, and a never ending shower of napalm rounds started to hit different obstacles and their skin. The minute the bullets had come in contact with their armor, they not only penetrated the soldiers' only source of bodily protection, but they burned them up from the inside. Fire erupted up from where the bullets had hit, and the soldiers that had been hit screamed in panic, while desperately trying to find a way to put out the fire. But every time they had managed to snuffle the flame, it just kept coming back. Those that were lucky enough to not have been hit struggled to return fire, only to have their luck turned against them, as a stray round came in contact with their armor. And even if the fire didn't kill them first, the bullets did.

Rocket laughed menacingly at the soldiers that were on fire, while continuing to shoot none stop, not even done with his first clip of ammunition yet.

Groot smacked aside two soldiers that tried to run away, and kicked another that tried to shoot Rocket from behind. Another fell to the ground and put his hands up in submission, but Groot simply stomped on him, ignoring his plea of surrender.

"Dance you idiots, DANCE! Hahahahahaha!" Rocket shouted enjoyably, while continually to unload on the already inflamed soldiers.

Those who'd been hit long ago, fell to the ground- not being able to take the heat damage done to their system already, and died.

Quill ran alongside the Stairwell towards more small pockets of resistance, which had just turned its attention to Groot. He slid towards them at the last second, while shooting off his Laser Pistols numerous times, dropping most of the soldiers that had once stood, until he'd reached he's stopping point. He leaped up using his feet, right as the double doors beside him had opened, to reveal three more soldiers tumbling out. Quill smacked one of them in the face with a door, and ducked under another's attempt at shooting him with a laser rifle, before he shooting him twice in the chest with one of his Laser Pistols. The third didn't nearly react as fast as his two partners had, and by the time he'd turned back around, Peter had roundhouse kicked him into the wall, right as the first soldier has recovered from the door smack. The third soldier readied his Laser Rifle frantically, scrambling for the trigger, and fired, only to have accidently shot his partner, who had just stood up in front of Star-Lord. Peter tossed the corpse aside, and shot the last one dead on.

Right as he had done this, however, one last soldier emerged from the doorway behind him, with his weapon readied in intimidation.

"Drop em!" He barked.

Peter turned around in alarm and surprise and held his Laser Pistols up in submission.

"Sure buddy, whatever you say, just give me a sec…." Peter sang.

He dropped his Laser Pistols, but at the last second, he drew a third Pistol and ended the soldier's life before he could properly react. After he was done with this, Peter put his third Pistol back into his Ravager Coat pocket, and put his hands into the air innocently. "Well? You said to drop the Pistols didn't you?" He chuckled.

Suddenly, the sound of a soldier's muffled scream turned his attention to behind him, to find that Gomora had slit his throat. Drax stood beside her, dispatching a soldier with his bare hands, before tossing him off the railing of the stairwell.

"Are you doing well Star-Lord?" Gomora asked aloud.

Peter shot a soldier behind her. "Just fine thanks," he replied smugly, "we should really be regrouping with Groot and Rocket by now!" he added.

Gomora chucked a knife into a soldier stepping through the double doors. "Sounds like a fine plan! But we must be swift. You heard what the Captain said, there are many opponents in this structure!" she reminded him.

Peter leaped off the railing and landed behind a group of armed soldiers, and ran straight at them, shooting them down with his duel Laser Pistols. One ducked under his string of laser bolts, and Peter jumped towards him to intercept. But his attempt ended in failure, when a sudden electrical shock hit Star-Lord. Pain coursed through his body, as Peter started to realize that the soldier had just electrocuted him with his glove! The painful energy spread throughout his body, making Peter crumple to the ground slowly, as he yelled out in pain. The soldier finally released him from his electrical grip. Peter tried to get up, but the paralyzing feel of the focused electricity had rendered him completely immobilized, and his bones failed to lift him up enough to defend himself. The soldier picked back up his rifle and readied it on Star-Lord.

But before he could fire, Drax grabbed the soldier from behind, and tossed him against the wall as hard as he could, knocking him out.

Peter finally managed to sit up with a painful grunt, though it made his vision a little blurry in doing so. Gomora appeared from the side and helped him up, while Drax supported him from the right.

"Peter! Are you alright?" Gomora asked him firmly.

Quill's vision finally cleared out, and he shook out his limbs a little, trying to rid them of the remaining electrical feel. "Y- yeah, just got a little carried away there," he stuttered, "I'm fine. Where's Rocket and Groot?"

"Right here boss!" A voice shouted from behind him.

Peter, Gamora, and Drax all turned their attention to Rocket and Groot. Groot had pinned down a soldier on the ground, who had his hands up in submission.

"Groot's got a live one here! What should we do with him, Quill?" Rocket asked.

Peter glanced down at him briefly, and crouched down next to him, making the soldier scoot away from I'm in alarm. Peter turned off his battle mask, then started the interrogation.

"Alright, listen here Ninja Turtle," Peter started firmly, "I don't know who sent you, or what you guys want with this orb, but you're going to answer my questions, whether you like it or not! Now tell me, where are the hostages?" Peter asked seriously.

"Nayia, co gola!" The soldier spat at him. Even though his expression was unreadable through the helmet he wore, his tone sounded pretty obvious to Peter. Just not his speech.

"Say what?" Peter asked in confusion, his eyebrows narrowed in puzzlement. He looked over to Rocket. "Did you catch any of that?" he asked the Raccoon.

Rocket shook his head. "Nah, sorry Quill. All I heard was: Oga, Boga, lugo pugi, I don't want to be a captive!" he said sarcastically.

"What about you Gomora?" Peter asked, turning to the green-skinned assassin. "Do you know what the heck this guy's saying?"

Gomora frowned and looked the captive soldier in the eye, and said something in another native language Peter didn't recognize.

And to his astonishment, the soldier replied in a complete sentence.

Gomora looked over back at Peter, her eyebrows widened in alarm.

Rocket crossed his arms. "Well?" he asked impatiently, "what'd the idiot say?"

"He said….." Gomora looked down at the other bodies of the black armored soldiers, then at their weapons, and at the helmets they wore. Then she looked Star-Lord in the eye. "Peter, don't you recognize these men? They're Ronan's!"

The name sent chills up Peter's spine. Ronan The Accusar? No, it couldn't be him, could it? He died back at that crash site, and every one of the Guardians saw it with their own eyes! But if he wasn't alive, then why were his own Kree soldiers still going after the orb?

"Ronan?" Peter asked in disbelief, "no way, he's dead! You saw it with your own eyes Gomora, he died, right in front of your eyes!"

"I know that, I know," Gomora replied, "I never said it was him, it could be someone else directing them other than Ronan."

"Who?" Rocket demanded suddenly. "Thanos?"

Gomora shook her head. "It couldn't be him. He is not foolish enough to try and take the orb, he knows that we will take it back somehow. So at this point, I am not sure."

She suddenly turned her head back to the Captive soldier, and demanded something in her native language. He spat back something that didn't sound very nice to Peter, and she threatened him with a knife to the throat, responding to him in another, "charming" tone of voice. They had another small, brief conversation, before Gomora had finished and returned her attention back to Star-Lord.

"He won't tell us who exactly he works for, but he does know where the hostages are. Six of them are being held in the Armory, and the other two are being held at the top floor of the Compound, which is where the last bulk of their force are being held at," Gomora explained. Glancing back to the hostage she added, "what should we do with this fool?"

Peter looked away carelessly. "Get Groot to finish him, we can't have any more of them coming to back-stab us later while we're on the job," he ordered.

Groot grabbed the soldier by the head at this, and a panicked scream erupted from the soldier, before Groot tossed him across the Compound's first floor at an alarmingly fast speed, causing a loud slam to erupt on impact.

"Alright guys, come on, let's move!" Peter urged them, "we got some hostages to rescue! Sam, get down here, your spotting job is done here!"

"On it boss!"

A few minutes passed, and Sam had regrouped with them by then.

"Quite a little hothead, aren't you?" Sam remarked to Rocket smugly.

Rocket managed a small smile. "And you aren't?" he retorted playfully.

Their eyes met again, another one of those moments where Rocket forgot all about his battle rage that he'd just experienced a few minutes ago. He felt a small amount of warmness wash over him again, and Sam smiled a little.

"What's with the stare?" she asked nervously.

Rocket shook himself back to normal. "Whoa, my bad! Didn't mean to- uh….. do that, sorry!" he apologized swiftly. He looked as if he wanted to say more, but Rocket made himself walk away forcefully. In his mind, he did feel a little discouraged at this. _So she's not interested in me the way in the same way I am. That's cool, I can wait. She'll like me eventually….. just like Gomora did with Peter._

That much, Rocket knew.


	5. The Assassin: Part I

**Chapter 5: Part I**

* * *

><p>"Man, is it dark in here!" Rocket complained, "that guy wasn't lying when he said even the emergency lighting was out! "<p>

Peter Quill looked around the dark halls cautiously as they walked, and sighed. "Yeah, it is. But Groot's little light trick should give us enough to be able to see in front of us at least," he commented.

Sure enough, the Captain had not over exaggerated the situation when he'd told them that even the emergency lighting had gone out. Not a speck of light seemed visible in the dark hallways, and every power box or generated that Rocket attempted to pry into wouldn't work no matter what he did to fix it. Luckily, the Guardians did not encounter much resistance, except a stray patrol of Kree soldiers- looking for survivors to exterminate Rocket guessed. Though at the same time however, this was a bad sign. The less soldiers that the group saw, and the less gunfire they heard made everything harder to locate the hostages that they needed to rescue. Not only that, but it ticked away the Captives' survival time. Every minute they wasted put the men that were still alive at risk of being killed, and Peter- nor any of the other Guardians liked the idea of that scenario occurring. The Electrical Elevators didn't even work, and that made it altogether a lot more difficult to navigate in between floors to cover more ground. According to Rocket's knowledge of the building's schematics, they would have to either find a staircase to use, or somehow find another way to gain access to the top floor.

Drax snorted at Rocket and Peter's conversation. "I do not fear the lack of a source of illumination, for Drax the Destroyer does not need to be able to see, to rip out his enemy's spine!" he insisted boldly.

Rocket scoffed and said, "Whatever you say Princess."

Drax glared down at Rocket. "I am not a Princess!" He protested angrily.

Sam patted his leg lightly, but hesitantly. "Hey, calm down big guy, he's just joking around with you!" she said firmly, but with a speck of amusement visible in her tone.

Rocket stole a glance at her way. "He can't take a joke Sam, that's nothing new to us, trust me," he smirked, making Drax glare after him crossly.

"What is a joke anyhow?" he muttered under his breath in wonder, as he caught up with Peter and the others.

Peter suddenly stopped in his tracks at the sound of a distant rustle up ahead. "Guys, shut up! You here that?" he whispered frantically.

They didn't hear a sound. Rocket scratched his head and looked around in bewilderment.

"What? I don't hear any-"

A sudden whistle in the wind made Rocket's ears prick, and shut his mouth.

Then out of the blue, Peter suddenly felt a strong use of force hit him in the side of his chest, followed by a burst of pain. He grunted with pain and withdrew one his Laser Pistols, but the sudden attacker disarmed him, and kneed him in the gut, making him crumple to the ground briefly. Rocket and everyone else reacted quickly to the attacker's presence, but not fast enough, in the dim amount of light they had. Rocket fired a burst of his Machine Gun at the attacker's silhouette, but the agile figure dashed to the side and ran alongside the wall towards Groot, kicking him in the face. Gamora dashed to intercept and leaped towards the figure with her sword in hand, but he lowered himself right as she impaled the sword into the wall above his head. Her opponent kicked her off of itself, and dashed outside the hallway's room, where Peter just barley caught of glimpse of the opponent's Robotic mask that it wore.

Gamora recovered from the blow to the chest she'd received, and Peter sat up from the ground, only to find the swift attacker long gone. Groot rubbed his bark-like face a little, frowning with anger at how quickly the enemy had managed to catch him off guard.

"Dang, that guy's fast…." Sam breathed.

Peter glanced to Gamora. "How much do you want to bet that dude was the leader?"

Gamora glanced back to him seriously. "100%," she replied without hesitation.

With that, the Guardians started after their attacker, which much to their surprise, waited until the last second to turn a corner. Peter and Gamora dashed after him, followed by their fellow allies, doing their best to keep pace with their mysterious assailant. Despite what little light they had left, Peter could faintly tell that they were in the Mess Hall at this point, due to the large ceiling above them. Groot kept fireflies dashing out of his root-like hands as they ran, in effort to allow them to see, but Rocket and Peter used their headlamps to see him clearly. The opponent ran left, and up a curved, metal staircase, where he started to gradually gain speed. Peter rushed up the staircase, and up around the curvy round to it, nearly tripping over himself, just to get to his opponent.

Then, once all six Guardians had reached the top of the staircase- just like that, the lights came on. One by one, just like that, every ceiling light in the room that they had now entered was on.

And as Star-Lord and his allies glanced around the room, his eyes landed on his mystical, Robotic-like opponent. He stood in the center of the bare room, which Peter recognized as the second floor of the Mess Hall. Fancy glass tables and chairs were scattered around the Mess Hall, in an organized fashion this time- unlike the rest of the Compound- which looked like a complete war zone. Not a single Kree soldier or Xandarian corpse was in sight this time- both a relief and surprise to Peter.

The only alarming thing in the situation- aside from the big robotic maniac and his two Kree guards in the middle of the room, was that in front of him- a captive Denarian Dey, sat in the center of the room. His mouth was covered with a rag, and from what Peter could see, his hands and feet were binded with Auto Cuffs.

The Robotic opponent put his metallic, gauntlet like hands in the air in greeting. "Welcome, Guardians of the Galaxy! We've been anticipating your arrival…" he said deeply and loudly. His voice sounded nothing like a living organism, but that of an emotionless machine.

At this moment, Peter caught a better glance at the mask he wore, and his appearance overall.

His metal, blackish colored mask resembled a hockey mask- a mask that Peter had seen people back on Earth use to play sports. The black, clear mask reflected light so easily off itself, and the eyeholes of the mask stared ever so emotionessly into Peter Quill's soul. The eyes were oval shaped and narrowed across towards where ears would have been present on a human's face, which made the robotic man look all the more intimidating. And the mouth curved to the sides of his face, with a little line of holes along the bottom of it, which looked as if they were used for breathing somehow. And last, but certainly not least, two breathing tubes were easily visible, sinking into his Mask cheeks, making it look as if he were wearing a Gas Mask overall. His black hooded overcoat covered his entire body from head to toe, and the backside of his head too. It looked heavily armored around the chest area, with some kind of solid, lightweight metal, which had some sort of faint design on it. From the looks of him, Peter guessed Assassin. Defiantly an Assassin of some kind.

"Dey!" Peter whispered in panic, immediately recognizing his face.

Peter and his allies went for their weapons, but of the Assassin's bodyguards drew a regular Pistol and put it to Dey's head as a clear act of intimidation. At this, Peter gestured for his friends to keep their weapons lowered, but stay put. He then took a cautious, bold step forward, with both of his hands up.

"What do you want with this place, Assassin?" He asked aloud.

Being a Robot, Peter knew he didn't have an expression, but he could tell that he was probably amused.

"Good," the Assassin praised deeply, "you know what I am. How perceptive you life forms can be at times….." he ran his metallic fingers down Dey's face, making him close his eyes and flinch in fear. "Yet so sensitive…." he crocked, his voice echoing as if he were possessed by something.

The Assassin turned his gaze to Peter's eyes again, where at once, Peter's suspicions about him not being living were confirmed, once he saw the cold, red eyes that lied behind that mask.

"But that is not the question at hand, that you seek, is it, Peter Quill?" he insisted.

Peter's blood ran cold, and his almost heart skipped a beat at the sound of his name, but he kept his cool. After all, this guy was a machine. It couldn't possibly be that surprisingly that he knew his name because of that, could it?

"Uh…. yeah, that's kinda what I just asked, Arnold Swarzenegger," Peter said with a shrug.

The Assassin's robotic eyes lit up at this. "What did you just dare to call me, life form?" he droned threateningly.

Peter looked at him puzzled. "Arnie? Duh, the guy who played Terminator, and the movie after that, and even in-"

The Robot stared at him as if he were completely insane and had just lost his mind.

"That name is not in my database," he replied simply after a few awkward moments of silence.

Peter rolled his eyes and drew his Laser Pistols. "Awe, forget this!"

He pointed them directly at the guards neighboring Denarian Dey and shot them both dead before the Assassin could react, and he looked back at both of them, to find both of his servants gone. The other Guardians readied their weapons on the Assassin Leader all at once.

By the time their opponent had turned back around, his eyes were blazing red. "Hmm. I should have expected this type of threat from a humanoid like you. But I hope you know, you have just made your last mistake, Peter Quill."

Peter scoffed. "Oh really? You think you can take all six of us on? We're the Guardians of the Galaxy, read the memo pal!" he urged.

The Robotic assailant just turned his head in an intimidating way, and stared down at Denarian Day. "Yes….. your numbers are great." He looked back up to meet Peter's gaze.

"But you should have brought more."

At the last second, he punched Dey across the face viciously, knocking him onto the ground unconscious, or worse.

Peter widened his eyes in surprise, and opened fire. "No!"

The Assassin leaped through the air in a spinning motion, while dodging the airborne laser projectiles, right as Peter jumped onto a table and lunged at the Assassin in midair. Drax, Groot, and Gamora ran towards the two to attack up close, while Sam and Rocket strayed behind, with their ranged weapons readied.

The Assassin nearly kicked Peter in the chest, but Star-Lord leaned to the side, and the robot stopped himself on the table, where the two immediately engaged in a brief fist fight. But each time Peter attempted to land a blow on him, the Swift Robot blocked every threat, and returned with more successful hits to Peter's chest. Star-Lord leaned backwards finally and attempted a quick roundhouse kick to his face, hoping to knock his strong opponent off balance. But the Assassin was much faster than Peter anticipated. He grabbed Peter's leg at the last second, where he managed to successfully kick the Human in the chest at lightning speed, propelling him off the table and into the wall.

Gamora and Drax both lunged at the robotic Assassin together, while Sam tried to get a clear shot of their opponent. Gomora slashed at him with her sword, but he sidestepped her attack and dodged Drax's reckless attempt at stabbing him, before kneeing Gamora in the stomach. Drax grabbed the Assassin from behind with both of his arms, while Gamora recovered from his previous attack and tried to stab him with her sword again, but their robotic opponent double kicked the green Assassin off the table. Drax tried to tear his enemy apart, but the Assassin improvised against his incredibly strong opponent, and stabbed him in the sides with the razor sharp gauntlets, forcing Drax to let him go at the sudden pain. As soon as he was free, the Assassin leaped around and double kicked Drax in the face, propelling the giant off the table and onto another glass one, breaking it to little shards.

Groot tried to whack the Assassin off from behind, but he jumped onto Groot's tree limb right as it came under him, right as Rocket had started shooting at him, and his bullets harmlessly hit Groot's back.

"Sorry Groot!" Rocket shouted out with a sharp intake of breath.

Groot growled lightly with anger and tried to smack him off him with his free arm, but the Assassin nimbly dodged his attack and spin jumped away from the six of his opponents.

Peter sat up after recovering from his injuries, and grunted a glance at the Robotic Menace that his team faced. This guy was faster then he'd thought he was. A LOT, faster.

Peter drew his two trusty energy weapons. "Time to improvise," he muttered to himself, as he charged after the mechanical opponent.

Gamora lunged at the Assassin once more with her blade, only to have her attack harmlessly deflected off by his metal gauntlets- which were attached to his wrists. She swung her blade around herself and deflected his anticipated wrist blade attack, before attempting to strike his chest, which the machine dodged. He propelled himself on the wall uses his legs and slashed straight over Gamora's head, right as she barely ducked under his razor sharp wrist blades- which ran past the ends of her long hair, cutting the ends off lightly. As soon as he passed over her, Gamora turned herself around just in time to block both of his Wrist blades, which crisscrossed into her sword in the shape of a letter X. Then, Gamora lifted herself on the ground, forcing the Assassin's wrist blades up with her sword, and double kicked him in the chest. The maneuvered ended with mixed results, and Gamora found it a foolish move in the end. The strength of her kick not only sent her opponent backwards off the table, but herself as well, sense their stuck blades hauled her forward onto him. Gamora forced her sword out of his gauntlets and rolled to the side away from him, right as one of his Razor sharp weapons grazed over where she once lied, sending bright sparks and a loud screech up from the ground at the intensity he'd put into the blow.

The Assassin jumped back up from the ground using his feet, just in time to dodge another one of Drax's reckless strength attacks. Peter fired off a few laser rounds at him, but the machine dodged those as well, just as easily as the last projectiles, and chucked a glass chair at his direction. But Peter shattered the chair with two more laser bolt shots, before leaping out of the way of the incoming glass shards.

Meanwhile, Rocket and Sam were still trying to figure out how to gain a good attack angle on their immensely strong opponent. With Peter and the others fighting so close to the enemy, it made the odds of a friendly being hit too risky. So Rocket finally made an attempt to help.

"Forget this!" Rocket growled in discouragement, "I can't sit back here and do nothing while this dude's beating up Quill and the others. Stay here!" he ordered Sam.

"No way!" Sam protested before he could turn around. "Let me go! I'm faster, and I can draw his attention so you can get a clear shot on him," she insisted.

"Faster?" Rocket echoed sarcastically, "please. You couldn't keep up with me even if your life depended on it, which is why I am going!"

Sam scoffed in disbelief. "You wanna bet on that, Chuckles?" she challenged viciously.

Rocket turned to face her, then turned around and sighed in distress. "You don't get it Sam. I'm not letting you go, because I'm not going to let you get yourself killed!"

Instead of being all, "oh my god, I didn't know you cared about me!," like Rocket expected her to, she scoffed again.

"So you think you don't think I'm good enough to do the job, is that it?!" Sam demanded angrily, "you think you're so much better than me, is that right?"

Rocket sighed again in distress, before suddenly looking towards the stairway behind them, and pointing towards it frantically. "Look, more enemy soldiers!" he shouted, before darting off towards the battle, right as Sam readied her Sniper Rifle in surprise at the stairwell.

"Where?" she asked, turning back to where Rocket was supposed to be. "I don't see any-" Sam kicked the ground in anger once she noticed he was gone.

"What the- Argh! I hate you so much…" she muttered, before readying her sniper to cover him.

The Assassin knocked Peter against wall again, now having parted him from his weapons, and having recently just tossed Gamora and Drax out of the ring recently.

Drax lie in a pile of broken glass, groaning in pain and anger at the same time as he struggled to get back up, and Gamora was pinned in her own weapon on the wall just across from the Assassin. And Groot was still halfway across the room, in between tables and chairs, struggling to get to Peter in time.

The Assassin walked across the room, triumphant of gaining his chance to finally end one of his opponent's lives, and picked up Peter by the throat- despite the mechanical mask that we wore. Star-Lord choked and wheezed through his mask, and struggled to find a way to harm his enemy, but the Robotic Assassain continued to choke him in his solid, steel grip. His burning, red, mechanical eyes gleamed with satisfaction at seeing him squirm and struggle, just like the little pest the humanoid had always been.

"Let's finish this," he droned determinedly, as he retracted one of his razor sharp gauntlets from his wrist, and brought it back for the killing blow.

Gamora gasped in shock at what was about to happen, and tried even harder to free herself. "No, Peter!" She shouted out.

But just as he was about to kill Peter, a small, furry figure jumped onto the Robot's head, blocking his vision, and forcing him to drop Peter- much to his relief.

"Quill, get the gun, NOW!" Rocket shouted.

Peter glanced to the Laser Pistol, just a few feet from him, under a split glass table.

Rocket rode the Assassin like a jockey, doing his best to cover his vision, as the Assassin wildly flailed his arms about, trying to get the Raccoon off of him. But even with his small success, Rocket was starting to lose his grip on his metal head.

"Hurry man!" Rocket shouted again in panic, as his paw grip started to loosen.

Sam finally fired off a round at the Assassin's back, but all the Sniper round did was bounce off his back, much to her discouragement, making her curse under her breath. "Dang it!" she growled. Not even an Armor Piercing High Powered Sniper round could penetrate his metallic-like body armor. So the question remained: What would?

Peter raced for the Pistol had fast as he could, but the Assassin regained just enough eyesight to blast the table that Peter had ran for, with some kind of explosive energy weapon on his wrist. Peter fell backwards on impact of the blast, and grunted with pain, as he attempted to sit back up. He looked down at his gloved hand, to find it torn a little, to reveal bleeding flesh, with a large piece of clear glass, stuck deep into the palm of his hand. Peter tore the piece of glass out and yelped out in pain a little, before attending to his wound as quick as he could. If he didn't, he would lose a lot of blood from that kind of injury quicker than he could blink.

The Assassin finally caught grip of Rocket's bushy tail and grasped him, before swinging him around his head like a whip, and tossing him against the wall, slamming him into the concrete wall at an incredible speed. Rocket tried to sit up from the ground, but he couldn't find the strength to, since the wall had practically broken every bone in his fragile little back. He managed to turn back onto his stomach, where the Raccoon started to crawl desperately for his rifle.

But right before his paws could reach the machine gun, the Assassin picked him up by the scruff of the neck, nearly strangling him to death already. Rocket readied himself for the worst, but instead of killing him liked he'd expected him to do by now- he just continued staring directly into his blue eyes.

The Assassin froze almost for that moment, his blades still raised as if he were about to kill him, but his glowing red eyes still stared into Rocket's soul. Rocket almost became petrified at his gaze, he didn't know why, but he just did. Something about his eyes looked…. Shockingly familiar. Almost as if he somehow knew this Assassin.

The Robotic Assassin then, cocked his head to the side in curiosity, and his red eyes started to get a tad bit smaller. That's when Rocket heard the words.

"_Subject JP293….. you know where you belong."_

Rocket's eyes grew wide with fear, as sudden images flashed through his head at the words…. Horrific images. He saw…. A lab. Then Test Tubes, full of the worst and most nightmarish creatures that he could've ever imagined. Abominations, that was the word. Experiments, and….. sharp tools, bone-saws, syringes. They horrified Rocket, more than anything he'd ever seen in his life, yet he didn't know why. Then his point of view changed. He heard the sound of a drill, followed by a sudden enormous pained feeling in his little arm- liked he'd been carved from the inside out 100 times over, and his own screams of pain echoed in his ears. Then he heard voices, and saw a man. A smiling man, with a beard.

_You will be the perfect subject, JP293. _Then another voice, which sounded as if it were a different time suddenly. _All it will take is a few… modifications and you will be perfect. _And another: Rocket's own voice. _What…. What did you do to me?! _He heard himself scream out in panic. _Why… I made you perfect of course. You always wanted to be perfect didn't you, JP293? _Another cold, yet friendly voice, said in another flashback, _Your new name will be….. Rocket. What do you think, Grimlock? Doesn't it fit him rather nicely? _Then, Rocket heard, a deep, unmistakable tone reply, followed by the sight of his red, glowing eyes. _Yes master. It sounds like a fine name. _Then, Rocket saw the man with the beard look him in the eye- as if he knew he were having flashbacks, smile, and whispered: _And don't you forget, Subject JP293, you know where you belong. _

Then the flashbacks ended, and Rocket found the red eyes of Grimlock, staring back into his, in reality.

The Robotic Assassin, was none another than the stranger in his flashbacks: Grimlock.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Alright, I feel like I need to clear something up real quick. I wanted to point out, that Rocket's subject name isn't the same as the one that the guard stated in the movie, (After Rocket and Peter got captured) as some of you may have noticed. (Special thanks to the guest reviewer that reminded me about that! ;) much appreciated) All I will say is 1. I did that on purpose, despite the fact that I knew his actual subject name. And 2. You will find out why I did that later on in the story, otherwise it would be a spoiler. ;) so if you want to find out why... guess what? YOU have to keep reading!**


	6. The Assassin: Part II

**Deepest apologizes for the wait my friends! I've been very busy with my GOTG Roleplay, (Found at:  topic/158098/119329101/32/#127288867. Or look for the GOTG forum titled: Bellum Letale.If you are interested in checking out where I've been. In this roleplay, I play Sam, Rocket's love interest, and if you want to see some more of that, be sure to stop by and check out this link! Again, I am truly sorry for the month long wait, but for what it's worth, Happy late New Year, and please, enjoy the story!  
><strong>

**You already know what I will say next, but please don't hesitate to share those thoughts, and smack that review button for me! ;)**

**(Hint: This story also goes more into detail on Sam's past, but she does not appear until about halfway through most of the roleplay. Some of these details on Sam's past will not be said in this story!)**

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><p>Suddenly, before anything else could take place, Gamora's blade sliced through the front of Grimlock's chest, right as the Assassin dashed by him.<p>

The metallic Assassin dropped Rocket slowly and looked down at the weapon impaled through the front of his chest clamly, before grasping it with both of his metal hands. Gamora watched in stunned silence, as he ripped it out from his chest without hesitation, and tossed it aside like it was just a little splinter. Only a small hole remained where the sword once pierced his chest plate, but the machine didn't seem to care.

* * *

><p>Sam gasped with panic when she saw Rocket on the ground. He wasn't moving, and that wasn't a good sign.<p>

* * *

><p>Gamora took a few steps hasty steps backwards, as Grimlock turned around to face her, and unsheathed his wrist blades. Immediately, three long, razor-like blades on each wrist gauntlet ejected from each one.<p>

The Green Assassin looked over to the sword, which lie just a few feet behind Grimlock's feet.

Drax ran at Grimlock full speed at Grimlock, screaming with battle rage, as he charged towards him, but Grimlock simply knocked the dagger out of his grasp and grabbed him by the throat viciously, before tossing the giant into Groot, who was just arriving at a clear attack point.

Grimlock turned his attention back to his opponent, only to find her gone. And before his mechanical reflexes could process the situation, he found the back of a slick leg smash the front of his masked face, making him tumble backwards in surprise- just far enough for Gamora to grab her weapon safely, and spin kick him in the chest again for good measure.

Gamora readied herself with her sword, but found that Groot was already entangling the machine with his root-like arms. Grimlock eyes blared red in panic, as he tried to cut through the roots with his blades. But each time he managed to rid himself of a root a new one immediately replaced the one that he'd sliced off.

* * *

><p>While this was happening, Sam tended to Rocket's aid. The minute she'd reached him, she crouched down at his side and propped her sniper rifle on a broken glass table. First things first, she had to make sure Rocket's pulse was intact, and that he was breathing. Sam put her ear to his chest first. His Heartbeat sounded good, much to her relief. Jumpy, but good. Then she brought her face closer to his mouth, where she could faintly her him breathing, but with a small wheeze here and there.<p>

Before she could do anymore, she felt a familiar presence appear at her side, and Peter Quill slid to a stop beside Rocket. "How is he?" he asked firmly.

The female Raccoon looked back at him. "Fine, all except his breathing. He's wheezing, and I don't know why," she explained. She looked back at Groot, struggling to keep ahold of Grimlock in his roots. "I can help Rocket, just go help the others!" she insisted.

"Are you sure?" Peter asked hesitantly.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Go!" she urged him.

Star-Lord nodded and did as she insisted.

Once he was gone, Sam looked back down at the unconscious Rocket, and tried to shake him awake. "Rocket, Rocket wake up!" she urged him.

He still didn't move, but a low groan of pain erupted from him as she attempted to move him over. Being a little more careful this time, Sam set him down as lightly as she could, back into his original position, but propped up against the wall. There, she moved closer to his face, just to make sure she could hear his breathing again.

"Rocket, please, wake up!" she asked frantically, her voice starting to sound more panicked, as she tried to shake him again. But he still didn't move, or even stir.

Then, Sam came up with an idea. She rolled her eyes and face palmed in hesitation, before silently muttering something to herself. "He'd better not feel this."

Right before she leaned even closer to his face, and kissed him on the cheek lightly.

This time, she got something from him, and Rocket stirred a little.

Sam shook him a little again at seeing a positive response from him again. "Rocket, hey! Can you hear me?" she asked excitedly.

Then, she saw his eyes open lazily, before they closed again, and he groaned in pain. "Y- yeah…." He replied drowsily.

Sam looked away for a second, then meet his closed eyes. "Did you feel that?" she muttered.

Rocket's eyes opened a little, and he scratched his head. "Feel what?"

Sam blushed a little and turned away. "Good," she replied, ignoring what he had just asked. She looked back towards the battle.

* * *

><p>"Keep ahold of him, dumb tree!" Drax shouted, grunting as he sat up from the ground. With a weapon in hand, Gamora appeared beside him, and helped him up.<p>

Groot snorted in offence, but did as he was requested to do.

Drax smiled briefly at her. "For what it is worth, thank you for the aid, assassin," he said.

Gamora smiled back and nodded, and together they both charged at the pinned Grimlock in front of them.

Groot held in firmly in his roots, with this time, each one covering every inch of opponent's body, expect his head. Grimlock summoned all of his strength and pushed against the roots, but even that wasn't enough to break all of the roots all at once. He knew their puny steel toys wouldn't harm him much, but if he gave them enough time, they would do critical damage to him eventually. And time was something this Assassin could not waste. He flipped away his metal blades, for another weapon in his arsenal…..

Right as the two Guardians lunged forward with their melee weapons, when their weapon tips nearly came in contact with his chest plate, a slash of light stroke straight through Groot's root wall, and right across the blade part of their swords. And down went the blades, cut clean off by a new, exotic weapon that the Assassin now wielded, one that the Guardians of the Galaxy had never seen before: An Energy Sword.

It was because of Rocket that the team had heard about such a weapon at all. At the time, he'd told them that this particular weapon could slice and penetrate just about ANY, material in the entire Galaxy, including any variant of metal. It shined brightly, and buzzed directly out of a small, black, fashioned handle. The Shining part, being a focused, laser. Of course, the team thought Rocket was insane, as usual, and thought that it was highly unlikely that such a weapon would appear in their travels. Until now of course.

Grimlock swished around furiously and under-slashed a confused Groot's left arm clean off, making the giant tree take a step back in fright at the sight of such a dangerous weapon. The metallic Assassin ducked under the tree's attempt at whacking him with his last remaining arm, and, _slash! _Groot's right arm, was history.

Gamora and Drax both still tried to overpower him, despite their destroyed weapons, but Grimlock knocked them back easily, without having to use his energy sword.

He turned back around to face Groot- who stood defenselessly in the same spot as before, and rose his Energy Sword for the killing blow to his head.

But right before this could occur, a sudden blast of energy from behind him sent him onto a glass table in front of him. Using as a chance to avoid danger, Groot backed away cautiously, towards where Sam was currently watching over his dearest friend. A small, smoking laser blast was left on the back of Grimlock's clocked armor, and he turned back around to face his opponent, to find Peter Quill, standing there with one of his famous grins, and both of his Laser Pistols drawn.

"Say goodnight, Freddy Krugger!" He snickered, before blasting him in the chest with both weapons at once.

At once, Grimlock was propelled behind a table, as soon as the projectiles came in contact with his chest.

Dead silence spread throughout the room a few seconds later, and smoke rose up from Peter's barrels, as he took a few cautious steps forward towards the Assassin's death site. After not seeing Grimlock get back up, Star-Lord turned to his team members in satisfaction.

"Hey guys, I think I got him!" he exclaimed in disbelief, putting his hands in the air.

But Gamora and Drax didn't look as sure, and continued staring behind Peter, at something he couldn't see. "Quill….. I would heavily advice that you turn around slowly," Gamora told him cautiously.

Peter did as she requested. And what he saw, came as much a surprise to him as it did to his allies.

The black suited Robotic Assassin stood once more.

Star-Lord rolled his eyes at this in disbelief, and his jaw dropped to the ground. "Oh man, you have- you've got to be kidding me! You're still alive?"

The other Guardians also seemed just as stunned that their strong- yet one opponent still stood after so many blaster shots.

From what Peter could, Grimlock's chest was smoking from the impact of the laser bolt, and some blasted wires of his inside were scarcely visible, but other than that, little to no damage seemed to have been done to him. Grimlock's red eyes lit up brightly in anger through the very eyeholes of his black, soulless mask, and he brushed the back of his hooded armor lightly, as if trying to clean it.

"Fools!" he declared. "Such poorly constructed contraptions cannot harm something like me. But of course, you of all living creatures would fail to understand this."

Peter glared at him. "Hey, this is not poorly constructed Robo-Cop!" He protested, putting one of his Laser Pistols in the air for him to see. "It's a Tier Four-Mark Two Laser Pistol! Very high tech stuff bro!"

Out of the very corner of his eye, he could see Gamora trying to check on Denarian Dey, who was still unconscious at the time. So that gave Peter another idea. He and his enemy were now on opposite sides of the battleground. And what their opponent failed to realize, was that his own captive was now sitting with the Guardians. All he had to do was stall this guy long enough for Gamora to get Dey free.

"Now, back to my original question: What do you want with the orb?" Peter demanded from afar.

Grimlock cocked his head to the side in curiosity- at least that's what Peter thought it was. With a machine, you never know.

"Ah, yes…. this orb," he stretched. At that moment, he withdrew the very device that could mean endgame for the universe: The Orb. "A precious artifact that you believe can both save and prevent the universe from ultimate devastation and destruction. That's what everyone says about this particular device, is it not?" Grimlock droned deeply.

Peter's eyes widened in alarm at the sight of the orb, but he kept his cool, for the sake of their captured friend.

"Yeah, pretty much man," he admitted casually, lowering his weapon slowly.

Grimlock slowly began to pace around the room, clutching the device in the palm of his hand as if it were a fruit he'd plucked from a tree. "It is not I, who is worthy of holding this device," he stated simply. He looked Peter in the eye briefly, and held the orb up for him to see. "This device is of the utmost importance of the man who requires it, unlike your- petty Xandarian allies," he insisted deeply, "and I will not reveal the details about why, as that is classified information."

Peter rolled his eyes. _Obviously, _he thought to himself. "When you said you were expecting us, what did you mean?" Peter demanded, changing the question, "you know as well as I do that it's not every day you know before your enemies do that their coming."

Grimlock stopped in mid movement. "We contain more knowledge about you then you could possibly imagine, Peter Quill. Every step you've taken sense the day you were taken from Terra by the Ravagers, every second you've breathed your fresh Terran air and slept, my leader and I have been keeping constant surveillance on you. And not just you, but one of your allies as well," he added.

This sent more chills down Peter's spine, as if a Rattlesnake had just slithered down his back every so softly… and then some. That couldn't possibly be true, could it? A Robotic Assassin, stalking him every second he'd been out of Terra? That didn't sound right, and it didn't sound like a very pleasing or admirable thought to Peter at the moment. Besides, who could this leader of his possibly been, that would have such an obsession with him, and one of the Guardians?

Suddenly, Grimlock's red eyes turned large, as he gazed up at something behind Peter in alarm.

Peter turned around, just in time to find a crippled Rocket, with his Machine gun propped on the table, in grenade launcher mode. His back trembled a little, and so did his right shoulder, but Rocket still stood, despite these setbacks.

"No!" Grimlock exclaimed, not sounding like a Machine at the moment. "That- that is impossible! You cannot be standing, after the pain I have just caused you!"

Rocket gritted his teeth in anger, and adjusted his gun barrel. "Believe me, you stupid, screwed up tin can, you might be made of metal, but you can still burn!" he shouted, before pulling the trigger on his machine gun, launching three consecutive grenades at once.

They whizzed into the air, almost in slow motion, and a high pitched whistled pierced the wind, as they nearly came in contact with Grimlock's body armor. Then, _ka-boom! _Three different explosions went off almost at the exact same time, sending glass shards and pieces of the concrete wall flying into the air.

After this was done, Sam helped readjust him so that he could stand up all the way, and with a pained wince, Rocket was standing again. He was a little slumped over because of his back wound, but other than that, he looked alright to his female companion. He looked over through the smoke, waiting eagerly for it to clear up so he could see his destroyed opponent, that'd he'd tried to so hard to kill in the past.

But when the smoke finally did clear up, Grimlock, was nowhere to be found.

"He's gone!" Peter shouted back to the others, feeling both relieved and discouraged about this at the same time.

Even though the Assassin was off their backs now, he still had the orb, and Peter was pretty sure that his intentions for using it were no better than Ronan's. But now the hostages were their priority, now more than ever.

Rocket squinted where their enemy once stood. "What? How'd he do that? I just shot him, he should be dead! There ain't no way that dumb tin can could've possibly dodged that!" he protested.

Sam walked up beside him. "Yeah? Well he kind of just did Chuckles," she remarked with a roll of her eyes. Rocket glared at her for saying that, but didn't reply to it, or retaliate in any way.

"Peter, over here!" Gamora shouted.

Peter turned around, and not much to his surprise, he found Dey, leaning against a stone cylinder building support. His hair was out of place, and both his forehead and his nose bleed from a concussion of some sort. His uniform looked slightly ruined, but other than that, he didn't look to be in that bad of a condition.

He rushed to the Xandarian's aid immediately, widening his eyes in surprise. Dey's eye meet his, and he managed to crack a small smile. "Long time no see Starlord-" he coughed roughly into his hand a moment. "If only we could've meet in more- formal and friendlier terms," he joked, wincing a little bit as Gamora attempted to readjust his shoulder.

Peter smiled back and helped rest him against the cylinder. "No pressure, there's always tomorrow to do that," he joked back. "You're going to be alright Dey, that dumb tin can's gone now."

Dey's expression returned to normal, and he scanned over the entire team, as if re-recognizing their faces. "Thank god you're all here, I never thought I'd get to see the light of day, if it weren't for you- Guardians of the Galaxy. Did- did anyone else get out of the compound. Did Prime-"

"Yeah," Peter interrupted, "Nova Prime got out, she's alright sir. But where's your security team?" he directed back, gazing around briefly.

Dey winced again, and the grave look on his face said it all. "Dead," he replied bluntly, "all eight of them. We were managing to hold out fine until that robot psycho- killed them all…. Slaughtered and cut them apart like pigs. My heartbeat beacon broke as I was trying to get away, but I managed to stay hidden for a while…" The Xandarian commander looked over at the two dead Kree guards in the middle of the room. "Until those two made my luck run short."

"Do you know where the other men are? The captives," Peter urged him, "do you know if those guys are alive still?"

Dey stirred a little, and looked ready to fall unconscious. Peter tapped him on the check with his hand lightly. "Hey, hey, hey, come on now Dey, stay with me here!" he ordered.

At this, Dey's eyelids fluttered a little, and he opened them a little more, trying to make himself sit up better. "I don't know, but I- they're likely dead. Last I saw, they were holding out in the armory, but I don't know if they're still alive." Dey stammered.

Peter exchanged knowing glances with Rocket, and Gamora, then shot back around to face the wounded Commander. "Alright, hold up Dey, we're going to find you some help."

He looked over to Groot, whom at the time, was apparently eating stray leaves growing out of his shoulder. Peter facepalmed. "Groot, can you not?" he said in annoyance.

Groot immediately halted his herbivore meal, and shrugged in protest. "I am Groot?" he said.

Peter sighed again, but did his best to ignore the tree's previous meal. "Whatever, look, I need you to get this guy to the Nova Crop outside, can you do that for me?"

Groot smiled and nodding, picking up Dey delicately, and placing him over his shoulder, which immediately created a cradle of roots over Dey to help hold him there. "I am Groot," he confirmed, started to hastily walk back towards the exit.

Meanwhile, Rocket was still trying to cope with what Grimlock had said back there. _Subject JP293? _Rocket thought in bewilderment. _I'm supposed to be 89P13! _He put his hands on his face and tried to block out what the robot had said. The Raccoon still didn't fully understand how he had looked so familiar…. so deadly familiar with those burning red eyes, yet so menacing at the same time.

Sam approached him from behind. "Hey, Rocket, your human friend says we gotta get moving!" she urged him. Being more calm, she asked, "are you alright there? You look like you got slammed into that wall a hundred times over."

Rocket scoffed in pure arrogance and looked away from her. "I'm fine," he growled, sounding a little more angry then he'd meant to sound, but also not caring.

The Raccoon felt along his own back lightly with his paw, and when he'd brought it back up to his face, he found light blood on the edge of his paw pads. He rubbed it together with his fingers, where he then realized what it actually was, and winced in pain lightly from the wall slam.

"Dang… that guy packs a punch," he muttered to himself silently, as he followed Quill up the stairs of the compound.


	7. Taken

**Sorry for the month long delay again guys! I realize how long it's been, and I apologize once again, but life gets you once In a while, and let me tell you, it has for me. :/ I am afraid that updated chapters may not arrive until 2 - 3 weeks after the first one is published, but I will try my best from this point on to update as soon as I can. Know this: I will never abandon this story. **

**Anyways, Happy Valentines Day, and enjoy the chapter!**

**Note: I apologize if the battle scenes aren't written the best and are too quick. :( action isn't my biggest genre, even though I like it.**

**Please don't forget to share your thoughts and hit that review button for me! ;D**

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><p>The minute Kree soldiers had swarmed the third floor, Rocket was pretty sure they'd found the Armory. That and the arrow signs naturally directing them to their destination, but that wasn't how he'd known they were close to the Armory.<p>

However, they also found that they weren't the only ones in the fire fight at the time. There seemed to be other resistance fighting against the Kree, and huddled together at some place along the third floor. Xandarian soldiers from the looks of it. Luckily for the Guardians, the Kree on there side were occupied with the Xandarains, but Peter knew they wouldn't last long on their own.

Just liked last time, Peter, Gamora, and Drax all charged into the mix, while Rocket and Sam took to ranged combat from a distance.

"I don't think those are the bad guys chief!" Rocket told Peter, pointing to the group of Xandarians huddled in the middle.

Peter looked over and nodded to him, before activating his battle mask once more. "Then let's give them a little hand," he declared, before running ahead towards the hostile Kree soldiers from behind.

Peter shot one in the back, making him crumple to the ground. Two more enemies armed with Laser weaponry turned around to face there opponent, only to be gunned down without mercy by Peter's own weapons. He landed in a crouching position behind a flipped over table and finished the two opponents that lie on each side of him, and Sam finished off the sniper providing over watch on the fourth floor. Rocket finally decided to run head on with the team, all the while gunning down unsuspecting Kree soldiers, who turned around right as he unloaded on their black suits of pointless armor.

Gamora leapt over a counter in front of her and landed a sweeping kick to a Kree's face, knocking him flat on his back, and then jabbed him in the chest with her sword. Drax raced head on a group of three enemies, who'd just turned their attention to Gamora's sudden ninja-like attack, and laughing like a mad man, he punched one across the face before grabbing the remaining two by their heads and smashing them together numerous times, until their bodies went limp. He heard the sound of a Heavy Weapon being fired, and noticed that the Krees' had created and mounted one of their stationary weapons. Looking down at the two lifeless corpses he held in his hands, Drax tossed them at an alarming rate of speed, at the Kree soldiers arming the weapon, knocking them off the glass railing, screaming themselves to their death until they reached the ground. Drax grinned in satisfaction and noticing yet another enemy, he lunged over the counter in front of him and grabbed the soldier's throat, readying his fist to beat him to a bloody pulp.

"Drax!" Peter's voice stopped him from doing anything else. He ran to his side, his mask dispersed momentarily, now frowning with confusion and his eyebrows creased. "Hold on bro, this guy's not a Ninja Turtle, put him down!"

It took Drax a minute to realize that he was holding a scared half to death Nova Corp soldier in his grip, that and the other four aiming weapons at him. He slowly lowered him to the ground and let go. "My deepest apologizes Xandarian," Drax mumbled.

The soldier who'd been dropped turned back around swiftly, and his allies helped keep the enemy Krees at bay. "Deepest apologizes my rear end!" he growled. "Who are you guys supposed to be? A buncha rag tag wannabes?" he asked harshly, rubbing his shoulder, which looked to already have been shot.

"Why would I apologize to your rear end?" Drax asked, frowning in confusion.

The soldier looked back at him with a questioning raise of his eyebrows, clearly confused, then back at Starlord. "Uh… does your friend understand the concept of-"

"No, he doesn't even know what a joke is sir," Peter interrupted. Realizing that the conversation seemed to be heading off task, he said something more essential to the current situation. "But anyway, you don't know who we are? Seriously? Dude, we're the Guardians of the Galaxy, don't tell me you haven't read the memo too," Peter stated, ducking down behind cover next to him, and taking a shot at a Kree.

"The Guardians?" The Lead soldier echoed in surprise. He glanced back at the enemy soldiers, then back at him. "Help me take care of these guys, then we'll talk!" he shouted back.

Peter opened his mouth to protest, but the soldier had already leaped out of cover along with his fellow comrades and started opening fire. He ended up letting a sigh of frustration, before turning his mask back on, and jumping back into the firefight.

He and the group of soldiers- not to exclude Rocket, Sam, Drax and Gamora, all worked together to fight the swarming Kree soldiers, as if they were one military Task Force, fighting against the enemy to achieve victory.

Peter, the Nova Corp, Rocket, and Sam all unloaded on their enemy together. Gamora and Drax did their parts on attacking up close, but the large amount of enemy soldiers made it increasingly difficult to push forward, so they strayed back most of the time to avoid being hit.

The firefight between them went on for another ten minutes, until the Kree soldiers suddenly decided to fall back. They ran far into whatever doorway they could find inside the compound and jumped through whatever windows they saw, shooting behind their shoulders, and running…. Like they knew something was about to happen.

"They're runnin' already?" Peter asked in confusion.

"Ha! What a buncha wimps! We had them beat before this battle'd even took place!" Rocket laughed.

The Commander of the Nova Corp ground didn't look or sound as enthusiastic. "Hold on!" he put his fist in the air, suddenly halting his troops fire. "This battle's not over yet my friends…. far from it."

A rumbling sounded not far from the Guardians position across the hallway, shaking the skylight above them, and causing the glass above to shatter. The glass shards fell and scattered onto and around the group of Nova Crop and the Guardians alike, but they paid little attention to it, instead, listening to another current distraction, which shook the floor a little more.

Out of the hallway walked a large machine that looked about two times the size of Groot, with duel machine guns hanging on each side of itself. A single, box like structure on it served as the head and torso, with two red dots, which seemed to serve as eyes at the time that lied on each side of its box like head. Two metal legs, with curved metal plates at the bottom of them helped control the speed of and momentum of its movements.

Quill's jaw dropped to the ground. "Uh…. those are really big guns," he restated, not caring that he'd used same statement from before.

It turned it's box sized head towards the Guardians and Nova Crop, and at that instant, the weapons attached to its sides started to spin, followed by a high pitched whirring sound that emitted from the machine.

"GET DOWN, NOW!" The Nova Corp Leader yelled, leaping behind a solid counter, followed by his fellow soldiers preforming the same action.

Rocket, Peter, and the other Guardians didn't hesitate to listen.

At that moment, a burst of machine gun fire erupted from both barrels of the immense machine. It ran straight ahead at them, firing recklessly at any enemy they saw. Rocket flinched as a stray bullet whizzed by the edges of his fur. This was one of those times where he really wished Groot were here.

The Nova Corp took positions behind their counter and attempted to blind fire from cover, but the machine kept them pinned at their current location.

Peter activated his rocket boots, which lifted him off the ground, and unloaded on the enormous machine with both of his duel pistols. He flew overhead of it, right as the machine's weapons slowly rose upwards towards Peter's position. The Terran attempted to dodge its wave of bullets, but one stray bullet hit the bottom of his Rocket Boot, causing his transportation to go haywire on him, and smoke started to appear right away where he'd be shot at. He swerved around furiously in the air, struggling to get back on track, but his attempt failed in the end, resulting in Peter clumsily crash landing into another nearby metal desk.

Drax took advantage of the machine's attention being off Peter, and ran ahead straight at it. He charged at it and jumped onto one of its Mini Guns, and summoning all of his strength, he started to rip it from its body. Creaking and whining protests of the mechanical menace sounded from within itself, as the Mini Gun attempted to turn towards Drax, but he continued pulling with all of his might.

Howeve, the Kree as he turned out, had decided to join the party again. One soldier attempted to bash Drax from behind, so the maniac grabbed him with one of his hands, and punched him across the face, knocking the soldier to the ground. But as he did this, it allowed the gun totting machine to knock Drax off with ease. He was rammed into the wall of a nearby technological booth, causing more shards of glass to rain onto him, and Drax grunted with pain at the wall bash, as the machine's Mini Guns started to spin.

But right when things seemed to be turning in the Kree's favor, something interrupted Drax's demise from commencing. "Hey, dumb machine!" a voice called.

The machine's box-like head turned at the sound of the voice, to find one of the Nova Corp soldiers, with a loaded Triple Barreled Rocket Launcher. "This is for Xandar," he stated, pulling the trigger on the launcher, sending a barrage of missiles into the machine. It staggered backwards on impact of the missiles, and the Machine's box head now looked to be cracked. One of his red, blinking lights on the side of its head was now out, and the second one looked to be fading away. The problem however, was that the machine was not dead yet.

The Nova Corp soldier who'd fired the Missile Launcher stepped backwards cautiously to see if he'd done anything to it, or if the robot would fall to its death.

"It's not dead yet!" the Captain yelled.

"Get back!" Another soldier shouted in panic.

But they spoke to soon. After hearing the whining of the Mini Guns starting to spin, the Nova Corp soldier was lying flat on the ground, full of bullet holes, dead.

The Kree machine looked over at the rest of the Nova Core, getting ready to spin its weapons again, as if to say, 'who's next?' The Captain looked enraged, and in disbelief, and even the Guardians of the Galaxy looked stunned to see that it hadn't fallen yet by three rockets.

Rocket sat in his one spot of cover, inhaling and exhaling calmly. Sam was just right across from him, looking just as hopeless as he did about the situation they were now in.

But then, a new presence rumble throughout the base silently, and Rocket's ears rose at hearing this familiar sound. It sounded like footsteps…. Strangely familiar ones too.

Just then, Rocket knew who it was, when a large figure came running at the machine from behind, it's tree-like arms swaying wildly, and the Raccoon heard some all too familiar words be shouted.

"I, AM, GROOT!

The large machine turned around to face the tree humanoid, but Groot rammed himself into the threat, and wrapped his long, tree limbs around it. His arms created roots, which entangled the robots weapons. From what Rocket could see, Groot was actually a couple 6 inches taller than the machine, making it easier for him to overpower the robot. With a grunt, Groot picked the robot up by the head, slowly but surely, raising him higher and higher above the ground, until he'd practically had him halfway off of the ground. Then, the tree humanoid ripped off his Mini Guns, one by one, before he'd raised him even higher above his head, and thrown him across the room.

The robotic contraption smashed into the concreate wall on impact, it's legs still working, but barely. With a weak groan, the robot attempted to take a step forward towards Groot, only to shakily move to the left, as if it were drunk.

But Groot wasn't finished with him yet. He picked up the two Mini Guns from the ground, one in each tree limb, and approached the now defenseless behemoth casually with them. The machine groaned mechanically again, and a rackety whirring weakly started to sound, as it tried to move backwards away from Groot. The tree shoved one Mini Gun through the Box-like head of the large machine, causing the second red light on its head to go dark, then, holding the second heavy weapon like a baseball bat in both hands, Groot brought in back behind his head, and slammed the multiple barrels of the Mini Gun against the one that was stuck in his head, causing it to move deeper through it. Then he brought in back again, and smashed it against his head again, and again, and again, until the machine's head was split in half. In moments, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Nova Corp, found themselves staring at a pile of overkilled mechanical wreckage, lying on the fourth floor of the compound.

The soldiers sat up cover, gasping for their breath out of disbelief. Peter sat up from the ground, grunting and wincing as he sat up, and grabbed his Laser weaponry. He scooted a little closer to the mechanical pile of wreckage on the ground, and cautiously gave it a little kick, causing a few sparks to appear, but nothing else exciting happened despite this.

Groot looked down at the machine in triumph and smiled, pumping his muscles, as smashing it one more time with the Mini Gun he held. "I am Groot!" he declared, probably saying something prior to his victory over the large behemoth.

Rocket sat up and coughed a little, trying to get the dust that had clogged itself in his throat out.

The Leader of the Nova Corp walked over to the Terran, and grabbed Peter's hand, helping his stand him. His face now had a few scratches on it, and what looked to be a bullet graze lied on his right check, but the soldier seemed to be okay other than that.

"Captain Salvias Royce," he said. Peter nodded in acknowledgement. "And for what it's worth Mr. Quill, we appreciate the- somewhat of a rescue 'attempt,' but even though you may have saved us at the moment, we still have two more Nova Corp members that need rescuing."

"Yeah, but you aren't going anywhere fast without our help Captain, trust me, Peter insisted.

Gamora stepped up to his defense. "He's right. You won't get to those men in time without our help, especially with the amount of men they still have. With only 4 other men to cover you, your odds of success are slim."

The Captain turned, and almost immediately, his expression turned vicious at the sight of her. His eyes grew wide, like he recognized her and his teeth gritted together, as he readied his weapon on the green assassin. The Laser Rifle whined, clearly stating that it was ready for firing. "How dare you show your face to Xandarians after what Ronan just made our people through!" he growled. The other soldiers around them turned their weapons on Gamora. Royce looked in Peter's direction. "You'd best have a very good reason for her standing in our presence Mr. Quill!" he demanded.

"Whoa, whoa, lower the toy there man, cool off!" Peter urged, getting in front of the Captain's weapon point and waving his arms like a stranded plane crash survivor. "She's with us, trust me! Gamora doesn't work for that Ronan dude anymore, and she sure as heck doesn't have any problems with you guys! She's one of us," Peter finished calmly.

The Captain still kept his weapon pointed in Peter's direction, the hostility and anger burning in his eyes and he glared sharp daggers straight at the Terran's eyes, and also at Gamora's. But the next second, he finally lowered his weapon, though the hostility still remained in his green eyes. The soldiers went along with their commanding officer's actions.

"Fine," he replied reluctantly. He looked up at Peter, and pointed at him. "But know that we will be keeping close surveillance on your little murdering slut," he growled.

Gamora glared at him. "Watch your tongue Xandarian, or I will silence it permanently!" she threatened.

The Captain stared back at her with that crazy look in his eyes, like he wanted to murder someone. "Charming," he ended up muttering under gritted teeth, clearly trying to keep his real anger contained. Turning back to Peter, he added on. "Fine. But just how do you suggest we reach the top floor without using the staircases? We still have another ten floors to go, and even then, any floors above this one are laser sealed, and not only that the elevators are not active, or in other words, not able to be activated, period!"

Peter knew very well- based off of Rocket's knowledge that Gamora wasn't exactly the most popular person in the galaxy, especially due to the fact that she'd taken the lives of many people's families during her line of work with Ronan. But Peter still valued her highly, and saw that it wasn't her fault that Gamora was this way. Of course, Xandarians of all people failed to understand this, especially after Ronan's little show with the Dark Astor on Xandar. The Captain seemed no different, and Peter knew he could hate her for any of the following reasons.

"Actually my friend, you may want to reconsider that sentence."

Peter and the Nova Corp turned their heads at the sound of Rocket's voice, just in time to hear Elevator music turn on. Rocket Raccoon stood in that exact spot in front of the doorway, grinning, just as two steel elevator doors opened behind him. The elevator's panel had looked to have be hacked.

Peter's jaw dropped for the hundredth time. "You mean to tell me that YOU, could've done that at any time?!" he said out loud in disbelief.

Rocket shuffled his feet and smirked, looking away from the dumbfounded Terran. "No- not at any time," Rocket's voice reached a high pitch, "it only works for certain elevators…." He put a paw of his mouth to stifle the laughter that was starting to creep into his voice, and Peter Quill rolled his eyes and facepalmed, sighing with frustration. "I hate you sometimes…." he mumbled, as he walked into the elevator.

_Dang rodent, _he thought to himself, remembering the time Rocket had pulled this same kind of prank, when he'd made him fight through several different guards at the prison they'd been stuck in, given a crippled old man 40,000 units for his robotic leg, and run back to the backstabbing ball of fur with it, only to find that it'd all been a JOKE! From that point on, Peter had been cautious about anything the Raccoon had said, and he hated Rocket for that…. for the most part.

Rocket sighed in amusement and shook his head. "Ah…. I know," he laughed, as the group of troops approached the elevator's entryway.

Captain Royce suddenly halted them before they could enter, his rifle propped on his shoulder, and frowned. "Hold on!" he insisted, "why are we going into a transportation device that is so obvious to attract the enemy's attention? You'd be a fool to think that the Kree wouldn't have that area guarded!" he insisted.

Rocket looked up at the bulky soldier and grinned. "Thank you for stating the facts Captain Obvious!" he said sarcastically, "but luckily for you, I have a plan."

Peter groaned. "That's supposed to be my line."

The Captain, ignoring Peter's remark, suspiciously asked, "What might you suggest?"

Rocket looked down the hall, and hearing the faint footsteps of a Kree patrol, he grinned. "Well, for starters, I'm gonna need a few things…. Involving those guys over there."

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><p>Grimlock walked over to a wooden counter top and gripped the railing beside him, as he looked down at the two prisoners that he had positioned near the glass panel leading to the outside. Kree soldiers lined the long glass panel, and kept their weapons at ease. The robotic menace looked back at one Kree.<p>

"How much longer will it be before transportation arrives?" Grimlock demanded.

The soldier looked down at the wrist bracer attached to his arm, then to his superior. "Approximately 5 minutes sir," he replied.

Grimlock turned away. "Good," he said. The mechanical whirring of his helmet sounded as he cracked his neck around and adjusted it. His red eyes suddenly went alit, and immediately, his head went up. "I have just received a new order from our superior. Execute the prisoners. Both of them."

The Kree soldier bowed. "Yes sir, with pleasure." The soldier unsheathed a small handle from his side, which ejected a blue flash of blinding energy from it, sizzling like lava. Two others held the Nova Corp members up so the executor could kill them easily.

The Kree held the energy weapon high in the air above his head, readying it for the kill, when suddenly, a rumbling sound interrupted his chance to do so.

"Wait!" Grimlock ordered, putting his gloved hand in the air, halting the Nova Corp Soldier's execution. "The elevators are being used?" he asked in confusion. Turning to his remaining Krees, he ordered, "investigate this intrusion, and put a stop it, immediately!"

With that, the Kree all made their way to the two elevator doorways, their weapons readied, as they crowded near the entrances. They waited and waited, as the rumbling made it's way up from below, and it became louder to their ears until it came to a sudden stop. Then, the doors opened, and _Hooked on a Feelin' _started to play.

The soldiers peered inside the first open elevator, right away, finding the origin of the music that was playing.

Sitting in the center of the elevator, was armored Kree soldier, binded forcefully into a black office chair, with a homemade time bomb strapped to his chest, which played the song that they'd be hearing from the outside. The timer on it read: _3 Seconds remaining. _The soldiers that were watching widened their eyes in surprise at the sight of the timer, and turned to run, only to do so when the timer reached zero. At that exact moment, chaos erupted, and anyone standing near the elevator was blown into the wall behind them, or blown to kingdom come, and the other soldiers that had been watching the second elevator had been hit by the bomb too, resulting in a few fatalities of their own.

At the time of the bomb's detonation, the second elevator door opened, and 5 Nova Corp soldiers and a tree humanoid came running out, attacking any Kree they saw. From the top of the elevator's hatch, Peter, then Rocket, Gamora, Sam, and Drax, jumped down, and raced outside to join the fray. Grimlock scrambled for his Laser Pistol and started firing at the group, while backing away towards the glass panel behind him slowly. Other Kree scrambled to react to the situation, but were killed before they could fight back effectively. Quill grabbed one soldier from the ground and slammed him against the wall, before firing a laser bolt into his chest, and smacked another behind him with the butt of his pistol, only to find that Drax had snapped his neck for him, ending his life indefinitely. The hostages meanwhile, were tended to by Gamora, who were only about 6 feet from Grimlock's current position, behind a metal desk.

Once all enemies were dead and eliminated, Quill, Rocket, and everyone else approached a pinned Grimlock.

"Now do you think you can take us all, Robo-Cop?" Peter asked from underneath his mask firmly, readying his weapons along with the Nova Corp. "Double the guys, double the firepower, think you can top eleven people?"

Grimlock just lowered his pistol and looked over them all with his red eyes. "I am quite capable of handling you all, but I am afraid I don't have the time." The assassin drew the Infinity Orb from his side with his free hand. "Nor does my master."

Rocket approached the robot from behind Peter, his teeth bared and his eyes demanding answers. "How do you know who I am?" he demanded. "Who are you even?!"

At this point, the Raccoon didn't care if Peter or anyone else heard what he was saying. He had to know the truth about his strangely familiar appearance, and how he seemed to know this robot.

Grimlock simply looked down at the Raccoon into his gaze, and took another step back against the glass panel.

"Don't move another muscle you imbecile!" The Captain warned.

Ignoring him, Grimlock said, "you will receive answers in time, Rocket Raccoon. But if you wish to have them….. the path to finding me, lies within one of your group."

Peter glanced to the side at Rocket in confusion, as if questioning what he was asking. "Rocket, what does this guy mean? What's he talking about?"

Grimlock looked at Star-Lord. "And you…. Peter Jason Quill, you are going to seek answers as well. I will not tell you why my master requires the orb, but I will tell you that he is someone who is close to you…. very close. He has watched you for a long while now, and still is."

"Who?" Peter asked hastily. "Who is he?"

The robotic assassin took another step, nearly touching the panel. "You will find out soon enough."

At this, Grimlock turned around and jumped through the glass panel as if it were nothing, his cape flowing in the wind behind him.

"NO!" Peter shouted, as he lunged himself to the edge.

The Nova Corp and Guardians looked over the edge, to find Grimlock's shape disappear inside a Kree Starship, which closed it's open canopy, and flew away. Peter, Rocket and their Nova Corp allies attempt to shoot it down, but their attempts inevitably didn't do anything to cease the ship's course to space.

The Captain's lips curled, and he punched the wall beside him an stomped his foot in anger. "Dang it! We lost them, we lost the orb!"

Peter and Rocket both exchanged grave glances, and Gamora stared up at the escaping ship, fear clearly visible in her eyes. She knew just as well as the rest of the team did that the orb was important above all else, and now that it was in enemy hands, who knows what would happen now.

Royce looked back at Peter and everyone else. "Follow me, we need to talk to Prime. _Now_!" the captain urged them, walking back towards the exit hastily.


End file.
